“Three separate signature analysts who said this was not the president’s authentic signature and we have maintained that all along.
At the briefing that gave rise to questions concerning Epstein and the Trump letter on several separate occasions, Leavitt also denied a claim by Republican House speaker Mike Johnson that Trump had been an FBI informant against Epstein.
Over on Capitol Hill, top Republicans have joined the White House in alleging that it is not actually Donald Trump’s signature on a suggestive poem and drawing addressed to Jeffrey Epstein that was made public yesterday.
Maga influencers largely dismissed the release of the birthday book, claiming Trump’s signature in it was a forgery, despite what other publications have noted is the clear resemblance to Trump’s signature at the time.
After he took office in January, Trump’s department of justice declared that no “client list” linking powerful individuals to Epstein’s crimes existed.
White House officials reaffirmed their claim on Tuesday that the president did not sign a sexually suggestive letter that was included in a birthday book for convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and that it bore what appeared to be Trump’s signature.
The letter, along with a drawing of a nude woman’s torso surrounding a hypothetical exchange between Trump and Epstein, was one of several documents made public by the House oversight committee in response to a subpoena after the Wall Street Journal first revealed its existence in July.
In addition to strengthening the White House’s position that the alleged Trump signature on the letter was a fake or a forgery, the publication of the letter and the full birthday book only heightened the commotion that Trump has been trying to quell for months.
During a press briefing, Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s press secretary, denied that Trump was involved in the letter. She also stated that the White House would support an expert review of the signature to ascertain whether Trump did it.
“We have consistently maintained that this was not the president’s genuine signature, despite three different signature analysts stating otherwise. The president’s outside legal team is suing the Wall Street Journal because the president did not write or sign this letter,” Leavitt stated.
Since it was made public on Monday, a number of White House officials have attempted to disassociate Trump from the 2003 note by arguing that the signature did not resemble recent examples that show Trump signing both his first and last name in sharp, angular figures in recent years.
The fact that Trump frequently used only his first name in signatures prior to taking office, stylized with a line that extended from the last letter, and that his signature on a 1995 letter closely matched the one on the note to Epstein, however, has been ignored by officials.
Trump refused to respond to the letter in an interview with NBC earlier on Monday. According to Trump, “I don’t comment on something that’s a dead issue.”.
Leavitt also refuted a claim made by Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson that Trump had been an FBI informant against Epstein during the briefing that repeatedly sparked questions about Epstein and the Trump letter.
Leavitt stated, “I can confirm that is untrue, and I believe the speaker was alluding to the fact that President Trump expelled Jeffrey Epstein from his Mar-a-Lago property for reasons the president has previously discussed.”.
The release of the Epstein birthday book and other documents that the attorneys for Epstein’s estate turned over to Congress rekindled the clamor over the Epstein files on Capitol Hill, and the White House may still be under pressure to make public the full scope of the documents the Justice Department has on the subject.
If two Democrats win special elections later this month, a bipartisan resolution calling on the justice department to make all of its investigative files on Epstein publicly available might garner enough support to compel action on the House floor, despite strong opposition from the White House and Republican leaders.
Leading Republicans on Capitol Hill have joined the White House in claiming that a provocative poem and drawing submitted to Jeffrey Epstein yesterday is not, in fact, signed by Donald Trump.
House Speaker Mike Johnson told PBS News that the White House denies it, but he hasn’t seen the artwork from Epstein’s birthday book, which was published by Democrats on the House oversight committee.
James Comer, the Republican chair of the oversight committee who has been spearheading an investigation into Epstein and the justice department’s handling of Epstein’s alleged sex trafficking, stated that he has no intention of looking into whether Trump’s signature on the document is authentic.
That is said to have been sent twenty-two years ago. Therefore, Comer told CNN, “I don’t think the oversight committee will invest in looking up something that was 22 years ago.”.
Despite the fact that Trump has a history of sketching in thick black pen, Republican representative and oversight committee member Tim Burchett also questioned whether Trump actually made the drawing and signed it.
“I’ve never known Trump to be much of an artist,” he said to CNN, adding that forging a signature was “so easy.”.
It’s unclear how much exposure Trump will receive in the future. While the justice department is expected to produce more records of its own, an attorney for Epstein’s estate told CNN that they would provide the committee with more materials “on a rolling basis” in response to the subpoena.
The Trump administration’s pledge to look into Epstein more has drawn criticism from survivors. Nine lawyers told the Guardian that they haven’t even heard from the justice department, implying that it is only looking to “whitewash” earlier investigations.
The birthday book was largely rejected by Maga influencers, who said that Trump’s signature was a fake, even though other publications have pointed out that it looked a lot like Trump’s signature at the time.
Even though Trump ran on a platform of releasing the same Epstein files in 2024, he has frequently dismissed concerns about the larger collection of Epstein files, calling it a “Democrat hoax” in general. Trump’s Justice Department announced that there was no “client list” connecting influential people to Epstein’s crimes after he took office in January.
