A U.S. House Oversight Committee has released a full copy of an alleged “birthday book” given to former financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on his 50th birthday, among other personal effects that belonged to him.
The 238-page book was unsealed Monday alongside a stack of Epstein’s private documents, including his will and address book, which contains the names of royalty, global politicians, models and celebrities. (Epstein was found dead in 2019 is his New York City jail cell while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.)
The birthday book also contains photographs and notes sent to Epstein from friends, including a letter written between the hand-drawn outline of a woman’s body, allegedly penned and signed by U.S. President Donald Trump — claims he and the White House have denied.
In a phone call with NBC News on Tuesday morning, Trump called the Epstein letter a “dead issue,” and declined to discuss the topic any further.
“I don’t comment on something that’s a dead issue,” he said. “I gave all comments to the staff. It’s a dead issue.”
In a White House Press Briefing on Tuesday, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt accused Democrats of “desperately trying to concoct a hoax to smear the President of the United States,” claiming that his administration had done more than any other previous president to clamp down on crime, especially sex crimes.
“I will get you numbers on the amount of child predators that this administration, and this FBI and this Department of Justice have locked up under President Trump’s leadership. We have done more than any president to protect victims of crime, especially disgusting, heinous sexual crimes,” she said.
What led to the release of the book?
In August, the House Oversight Committee ordered the executors of Epstein’s estate to release a series of files, including the birthday book compiled by Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s former aide and accomplice.
It followed a story published in The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) in July that revealed details of a “bawdy” note from Trump to Epstein, allegedly included in the book.
Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking young girls.
Trump denied that he wrote the letter and filed a $10-billion lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal for reporting on his link to the letter. After the book’s release on Sept. 8, the Trump admin was quick to deny its veracity.
“As I have said all along, it’s very clear President Trump did not draw this picture, and he did not sign it,” Leavitt said in a statement posted on X.
“President Trump’s legal team will continue to aggressively pursue litigation.”
(Leavitt did not, however, explain how the Wall Street Journal’s reporting proved the story false.)
Trump himself also denied that he had anything to do with the “bawdy” image.
“I never wrote a picture in my life. I don’t draw pictures of women,” he said in July to the WSJ. “It’s not my language. It’s not my words.”
“I’m gonna sue The Wall Street Journal just like I sued everyone else.”
The unsealing of the album and the adjacent documents follows repeated efforts by the Trump administration to quell pressure from its own supporters to release the Epstein files, which reportedly mention Trump by name, a detail Attorney General Pam Bondi informed the president of in May, according to CNN.
During his 2024 election campaign, Trump fed into a widely held belief among Republicans that crucial facts about Epstein’s life were being kept from public view and said that if elected, he would release them.
In July, the U.S. Department of Justice changed its tune, stating not only that no files would be released, but also that they did not exist, despite Bondi telling Fox News earlier this year that they were “sitting on my desk.”
Trump and Epstein were associates throughout the ’90s and early 2000s, according to the WSJ article, and socialized both casually and professionally, including at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
What’s in the book?
The names and addresses of some 40 people were published and divided into several categories, such as “friends,” “business,” “science,” and “Brooklyn.” The names written under “family” and “girl friends” were redacted, the BBC says.
A note appearing to be from former president Bill Clinton discussed “Epstein’s childlike curiosity” and a “drive to make a difference,” the outlet added.
Clinton has not commented on the book or his alleged contribution as of this writing.
In the book, Lord Peter Mandelson, the current U.K. ambassador to the U.S., calls Epstein “my best pal.”
A spokesperson for Mandelson told the BBC that he “has long been clear that he very much regrets ever having been introduced to Epstein.”
“This connection has been a matter of public record for some time,” they added.
The documents also contained content from White House occupants to restaurant servers and female masseuses who recalled interactions with Epstein and other high-profile individuals, including royals, introduced to them by the former New York City businessman.
There are also photos of Epstein on his private jet, in Asian medicine stores and hugging unidentified women.
In the book’s prelude, Maxwell writes that she wanted Epstein to get “as much pleasure looking through” it as she did making it.
According to the WSJ, the book also includes a joke allegedly written by businessman and Mar-a-Lago member Joel Pashcow about Epstein selling a woman to Trump.
The reaction so far
The release of the book prompted a response from Vice-President JD Vance, who wrote on X that the Democrats were “concocting another fake scandal” to “smear President Trump with lies.”
Meanwhile, Congressman Robert Garcia wrote on X, “We got the Epstein note Trump says doesn’t exist.”
Democratic Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett demanded the release of the “full, unredacted Epstein files.”
“Trump swore up & down he never signed Epstein’s “birthday book.” Called it fake. Even sued the WSJ for reporting it. Now the evidence tells a different story,” she wrote on X.
— With files from The Associated Press