The House oversight committee has published a 238-page scrapbook given to Jeffrey Epstein on his 50th birthday, including a sexually suggestive note bearing the signature of Donald Trump. The release has intensified public scrutiny of the elite circles surrounding the disgraced financier, with the president having previously denied writing the letter.
The scrapbook, titled The First Fifty Years, contains letters and images from figures such as former president Bill Clinton, the UK ambassador to Washington Peter Mandelson, and others in business and academia. Many contributions are explicit in nature, featuring drawings and photographs of a sexualised character, and all are uniformly admiring of Epstein.
The note attributed to Trump appears in the album beneath a sketch of a woman's torso, depicting an imagined conversation between the two men. The message quotes Trump as saying: “We have certain things in common, Jeffrey,” and wishing that “every day be another wonderful secret.” A second, previously unknown reference to Trump shows Epstein holding an oversized cheque for $22,500 with a “Trump” signature, alongside writing suggesting Epstein displayed “early talents with money + women” and had sold something to Trump who was “fully depreciated”.
Representative Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the panel, said the committee had “secured the infamous ‘Birthday Book’ that contains a note from President Trump that he has said does not exist”. He added: “It’s time for the president to tell us the truth about what he knew and release all the Epstein files.”
Trump has not publicly responded to the release directly, but told NBC News: “I don’t comment on something that’s a dead issue. I gave all comments to the staff. It’s a dead issue.” Meanwhile, White House deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich suggested the signature was falsified, writing on X: “Time for news corp to open that check book, it’s not his signature. DEFAMATION!” This referred to a defamation suit Trump filed against News Corp, parent company of the Wall Street Journal, over its earlier report on the letter.
The committee released the full book after a subpoena from its Republican chair, James Comer, and a request from Democrats Sylvia Garcia and Ro Khanna. The volume includes a prologue by Epstein’s associate Ghislaine Maxwell and contributions from billionaire Leon Black, Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, and Les Wexner, among others. Trump has previously denied drawing the figure or writing the note, describing the letter as a “FAKE” in a Truth Social post in July.
