Politics Trump in Full Panic, Claims All Epstein Files Are Fake, Created by Obama

JUST IN: The Wall Street Journal releases an alleged letter from Donald Trump to Jeffrey Epstein for Epstein's 50th birthday. President Trump says the letter "is a fake thing," and says he is going to sue the outlet. The letter allegedly involved a hand-drawn woman with text that read: "Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret." President Trump says the 2003 letter is not from him. "This is not me. This is a fake thing. It’s a fake Wall Street Journal story. I never wrote a picture in my life. I don’t draw pictures of women. It’s not my language. It’s not my words." "I’m gonna sue The Wall Street Journal just like I sued everyone else," he said.

 

FUENTES: MAGA BIGGEST SCAM IN HISTORY...
Republican pressure mounting for Epstein files release...
PENCE: ALL OF THEM...
Senator Says $1.5 Billion, 4,700 Suspicious Transactions...
Bondi Survival Remains Open Question...
69% Americans Believe Details Concealed...
The Don Is Trapped...
MAG: 'Deep State' winning...
FLASHBACK: Epstein's Island Visitors Exposed by Data Broker...


WSJ DOWNLOADS ON DON
DRAWING OF NAKED WOMAN
GHISLAINE'S BIRTHDAY SURPRISE
'IT'S FAKE'
LAWSUIT THREAT

 

Technically, he said he never wrote a picture.

barfo

 

Jeffrey Epstein’s Friends Sent Him Bawdy Letters for a 50th Birthday Album. One Was From Donald Trump.

It was Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th birthday, and Ghislaine Maxwell was preparing a special gift to mark the occasion. She turned to Epstein’s family and friends. One of them was Donald Trump.

Maxwell collected letters from Trump and dozens of Epstein’s other associates for a 2003 birthday album, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Pages from the leather-bound album—assembled before Epstein was first arrested in 2006—are among the documents examined by Justice Department officials who investigated Epstein and Maxwell years ago, according to people who have reviewed the pages. It’s unclear if any of the pages are part of the Trump administration’s recent review.

The president’s past relationship with Epstein is at a sensitive moment. The Justice Department documents, the so-called Epstein files, and who or what is in them are at the center of a storm consuming the Trump administration. On Wednesday, after angry comments about how the files are a hoax created by Democrats, President Trump lashed out at his own supporters for refusing to let the matter go.

The letter bearing Trump’s name, which was reviewed by the Journal, is bawdy—like others in the album. It contains several lines of typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman, which appears to be hand-drawn with a heavy marker. A pair of small arcs denotes the woman’s breasts, and the future president’s signature is a squiggly “Donald” below her waist, mimicking pubic hair.

The letter concludes: “Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.”

In an interview with the Journal on Tuesday evening, Trump denied writing the letter or drawing the picture. “This is not me. This is a fake thing. It’s a fake Wall Street Journal story,” he said.

“I never wrote a picture in my life. I don’t draw pictures of women,” he said. “It’s not my language. It’s not my words.”

He told the Journal he was preparing to file a lawsuit if it published an article. “I’m gonna sue The Wall Street Journal just like I sued everyone else,” he said.

Allegations that Epstein had been sexually abusing girls became public in 2006 and he was arrested that year. Epstein died in 2019 in jail after he was arrested a second time and charged with sex trafficking conspiracy.

Justice Department officials didn’t respond to requests for comment or address questions about whether the Trump page and other pages of the birthday album were part of the agency’s recent documents review. The FBI declined to comment.

The existence of the album and the contents of the birthday letters haven’t previously been reported. The album had poems, photos and greetings from businesspeople, academics, Epstein’s former girlfriends and childhood pals, according to the documents reviewed by the Journal and people familiar with them.

Among those who submitted letters were billionaire Leslie Wexner and attorney Alan Dershowitz. The album also contained a letter from a now-deceased Harvard economist, one of Epstein’s report cards from Mark Twain junior high school in Brooklyn and a note from a former assistant that included an acrostic with Epstein’s name: “Jeffrey, oh Jeffrey!/ Everyone loves you!/ Fun in the sun!/ Fun just for fun!/ Remember…don’t forget me soon!/ Epstein…you rock!/ You are the best!”

Epstein was Wexner’s money manager at the time. The longtime leader of Victoria’s Secret wrote a short message that said: “I wanted to get you what you want… so here it is….” After the text was a line drawing of what appeared to be a woman’s breasts. Wexner declined to comment through a spokesman. Wexner’s spokesman previously told the Journal that the retail mogul “severed all ties with Epstein in 2007 and never spoke with him again.”

Dershowitz’s letter included a mock-up of a “Vanity Unfair” magazine cover with mock headlines such as “Who was Jack the Ripper? Was it Jeffrey Epstein?” He joked that he had convinced the magazine to change the focus of an article from Epstein to Bill Clinton. Dershowitz, who represented Epstein after his first arrest, said, “It’s been a long time and I don’t recall the content of what I may have written.”

The book was put together by a New York City bookbinder, Herbert Weitz, according to people who were involved in the process. Weitz, who died in 2020, listed Epstein as a client on his website in 2003.

It isn’t clear how the letter with Trump’s signature was prepared. Inside the outline of the naked woman was a typewritten note styled as an imaginary conversation between Trump and Epstein, written in the third person.

“Voice Over: There must be more to life than having everything,” the note began.

Donald: Yes, there is, but I won’t tell you what it is.

Jeffrey: Nor will I, since I also know what it is.

Donald: We have certain things in common, Jeffrey.

Jeffrey: Yes, we do, come to think of it.

Donald: Enigmas never age, have you noticed that?

Jeffrey: As a matter of fact, it was clear to me the last time I saw you.

Donald: A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.

‘Jeffrey enjoys his social life’
When he turned 50, Epstein was already wealthy from managing Wexner’s fortune and was socializing with Trump, Clinton and other powerful people. He often entertained at his Manhattan townhouse, Palm Beach, Fla., home and private Caribbean island.

A spokesman for Clinton referred to a 2019 statement that former President Clinton had cut off ties more than a decade before Epstein’s second arrest and didn’t know about Epstein’s alleged crimes.

Epstein and Trump spent time together in the 1990s and early 2000s and were photographed at social events, including with Maxwell and Melania Trump. A 1992 tape from the NBC archives shows Trump partying with Epstein at his Mar-a-Lago estate; Trump is seen pulling a woman toward him and patting her behind.

Trump, along with others including Clinton, also appeared several times on flight logs for Epstein’s private jet.

A 2002 New York magazine profile of Epstein quoted Trump. “I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy,” Trump said. “He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it—Jeffrey enjoys his social life.”

Both men said that they subsequently had a falling-out. Trump has said their friendship ended before Epstein pleaded guilty to procuring a minor for prostitution in 2008, served time in a Florida jail and registered as a sex offender.

When Epstein was arrested again in 2019, Trump said he hadn’t talked to Epstein for about 15 years. “I knew him like everybody in Palm Beach knew him,” Trump said in the Oval Office at that time. “I was not a fan of his, that I can tell you.”

Trump’s spokeswoman told the Journal in 2023 that Trump had banned Epstein from his Mar-a-Lago club at some point in the past, without elaborating.

Maxwell, a British socialite, was convicted in 2021 of helping Epstein’s sex-trafficking and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Maxwell didn’t respond to a letter requesting an interview sent to her in prison. Arthur Aidala, an attorney who represented Maxwell, said, “At this point, she is focused on her case before the Supreme Court of the United States.”

The FBI’s Epstein files
Epstein’s associations with Trump and many powerful people have been well documented. There remain questions about what the FBI possesses about Epstein and his well-connected friends. In 2019, the FBI confiscated evidence from Epstein’s properties in the U.S. Virgin Islands and New York.

Earlier this week, after the Journal sought comment from the president about the letter, Trump told reporters at the White House that he believed some Epstein files were “made up” by former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden and former FBI Director James Comey.

He said that releasing any more Epstein files would be up to Attorney General Pam Bondi. “Whatever she thinks is credible, she should release,” Trump said.

Allegations that bureaucrats covered up Epstein’s connections with participants in his trafficking scheme were fanned by people now in top roles in the Trump administration, including FBI Director Kash Patel and his deputy, Dan Bongino.

In June 2024, Trump was asked in a Fox News interview whether he would release the Epstein case files. The Republican presidential candidate initially responded, “Yeah, I would.” But he also expressed some reservations. “You don’t want to affect people’s lives if it’s phony stuff in there, because it’s a lot of phony stuff with that whole world. But I think I would.”

Soon after she was confirmed as attorney general, Bondi said she was preparing to release new Epstein files. In late February, Bondi announced the release of “Phase 1” of the documents. But the material contained few new revelations, drawing criticism from right-wing influencers.

Bondi initially blamed the FBI’s New York office for withholding information and promised to release the remaining documents after redacting the victim’s names. Patel also said, “There will be no coverups, no missing documents and no stone left unturned.” They tasked hundreds of FBI employees to review the materials and prepare them for release.

The issue took on new life in June when Elon Musk, amid a public feud with Trump, alleged that the FBI was withholding documents from the Epstein case because Trump was in the files.

“The truth will come out,” Musk wrote on X on June 5. He later deleted the message and said he regretted some of his comments.

On July 7, the Justice Department backtracked on Bondi’s pledge to release more Epstein files. The Justice Department said that after an “exhaustive review” it had found no “incriminating client list” or additional documents that warrant public disclosure.

Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee demanded this week that Republican Chairman Jim Jordan hold hearings on the Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein files and, if necessary, subpoena Bondi, Patel and Bongino.

At a cabinet meeting on July 8, Trump criticized a reporter for asking about Epstein. “Are people still talking about this guy, this creep?” Trump said. “That is unbelievable. Do you want to waste the time?”

That same day, Musk wrote on X: “How can people be expected to have faith in Trump if he won’t release the Epstein files?”

https://www.wsj.com/politics/trump-...ter-we-have-certain-things-in-common-f918d796

 

Uh huh.

 

In Epstein Case, Follow the Money, Democratic Senator Says
Senator Ron Wyden has found that four banks waited until Mr. Epstein’s arrest on federal charges to flag $1.5 billion in suspicious transactions. Mr. Wyden wants the documents made public.

President Trump and his administration want to move on from Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier and sexual offender, who once associated with some of the world’s richest and most powerful people. Some of Mr. Trump’s most loyal supporters insist there is more to uncover.

But it’s not just the MAGA faithful who are refusing to let it go.

Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, the top Democrat on the powerful Senate Finance Committee, has been digging into Mr. Epstein’s financial network for the past three years. Some members of his staff have viewed confidential files that shed light on the immense sums of money that, they say, Mr. Epstein moved through the banking system to fuel his vast sex-trafficking network.

In particular, filings by four big banks flagged more than $1.5 billion in transactions — including thousands of wire transfers for the purchase and sale of artwork for rich friends, fees paid to Mr. Epstein by wealthy individuals, and payments to numerous women, the senator’s office found. The filings came after Mr. Epstein was arrested in 2019 on federal sex trafficking charges.

Large money transfers to individuals, foreign countries or obscure companies are the kind of things banks are supposed to be examining as potentially suspicious. Some of the Epstein money transfers disclosed in a report from JPMorgan Chase involved accounts at two Russian banks before those institutions were subject to U.S. sanctions. A few transactions red-flagged were for as much as $100 million.

Even before the Justice Department announced last week that it was closing the door on the Epstein investigation, Mr. Wyden had been pressing Attorney General Pam Bondi to turn over bank reports along with other information about wealthy individuals and financial institutions in Mr. Epstein’s network.

Mr. Trump, who was once friendly with Mr. Epstein, said this week that he would let Ms. Bondi decide which documents should be made public. He also dismissed his supporters who are calling for the release of Epstein-related files and said the matter was old news.

The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment. Ms. Bondi has said she stands behind the department’s memo that said “no further disclosure” of information was warranted.

The banks that filed reports reviewed by Mr. Wyden’s team — JPMorgan, Bank of America and Bank of New York Mellon — all declined to comment except for Deutsche Bank, which said it “regrets our historical connection with Jeffrey Epstein.”


The confidential bank reports filed with a Treasury Department agency could be crucial, because they provide the most comprehensive look at the enormous financing machine behind Mr. Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation in Manhattan, Florida and the U.S. Virgin Islands. To date, only bits and pieces of the financial transactions involving Mr. Epstein’s network have come out through civil litigation and news reports.

“In this era of misinformation, these reports are the coin of the realm,” Mr. Wyden said of the confidential bank reports.

The reports reviewed by Mr. Wyden’s team were filed by the banks months after Mr. Epstein’s arrest in 2019 on federal sex-trafficking charges and his subsequent death by suicide in a federal jail in Manhattan.

Normally, a bank is expected to file a suspicious activity report within 60 days of a bank’s spotting a questionable transaction, such as movements signaling money laundering or sex trafficking.

Gary Kalman, executive director for the U.S. arm of Transparency International, which focuses on illicit financing, said banks have to make a lot of assessments about a client before deciding to file SARs, including reading news reports.


In 2008, Mr. Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida to a charge of soliciting prostitution from a teenage girl and received a modest jail sentence.


In conjunction with the guilty plea, federal prosecutors in Florida entered into a deal with Mr. Epstein: He would be required to register as a sex offender and would not be prosecuted on the federal charges. The deal was criticized by victims, because authorities had reports that Mr. Epstein had sexually abused dozens of teenagers.

Many of the wealthy men, celebrities and politicians who associated with Mr. Epstein over the years have said in interviews or statements that they were unaware of the extent of his wrongdoing until he was arrested a second time in 2019.

It is unclear if more frequent and timely SARs filings would have made much of a difference with law enforcement given the years of criticism over how authorities handled Mr. Epstein’s investigation.

Mr. Wyden began his investigation roughly three years ago, with a particular focus on the more than $158 million in payments the billionaire investor Leon Black made to Mr. Epstein for tax and estate planning services. Mr. Black, who socialized with Mr. Epstein, was a co-founder of the private equity firm Apollo Global Management.

In early 2021, Mr. Black stepped down from all leadership posts at the firm after those payments and his close ties to Mr. Epstein became public. Mr. Black’s legal team has said that Mr. Epstein’s work saved Mr. Black some $2 billion in taxes and that he did nothing wrong in paying Mr. Epstein.

Early last year, his investigators, along with several Republican committee staffers, were permitted by Treasury officials to review the secret filings by the four banks.


The staff members were presented with thousands of pages of documents to review. But they were not allowed to make copies and could take only handwritten notes.

The single largest suspicious activity report reviewed by the congressional team was filed in late 2019 by JPMorgan for $1.1 billion. The report covered 4,700 transactions dating to 2003, including payments to women from Belarus, Russia and Turkmenistan. Many of Mr. Epstein’s victims included young women from Eastern European countries.

The next largest was by Deutsche Bank for about $400 million, followed by Bank of New York Mellon for $378 million and then Bank of America, which filed reports on Mr. Black’s payments to Mr. Epstein.

In 2023, JPMorgan paid $290 million to Mr. Epstein’s victims and Deutsche paid $75 million to settle lawsuits that claimed the banks ignored red flags about potential sex trafficking.


Marijke Chartouni, who was sexually abused by Mr. Epstein when she was 20, said the furor between Mr. Trump and his supporters had obscured the harm done to victims. Ms. Chartouni, who is now 45, also said law enforcement was to blame for not having more aggressively pursued Mr. Epstein and his network.

“Sadly, all this noise around the purported ‘Epstein Files’ serves only to detract from holding the Justice Department accountable to victims for its failure in preventing this trafficking atrocity,” she said in an interview.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/17/business/epstein-banks-wyden-trump.html

 

Trump’s Sketchy Epstein Lie Instantly Exposed
Donald Trump distanced himself from claims he sent a spicy, signed drawing of a naked woman to Jeffrey Epstein by insisting that he never drew pictures.

However, several doodles and artworks created by the president surfaced online on Thursday to directly contradict his claims. They suggest Trump regularly produced sketches adorned with his trademark signature.

In a Wall Street Journal article about a letter and drawing allegedly sent to Epstein for his 50th birthday in 2003, the president’s emphatic denial includes the statement, “I never wrote a picture in my life.”

In a flurry of frantic Truth Social posts on Thursday night, Trump doubled down on his lack of artistic skills. “These are not my words, not the way I talk. Also, I don’t draw pictures.”

The internet, though, always keeps the receipts—and there were some hefty clues that Trump may not be telling the truth.

In his 2008 book, Trump Never Give Up: How I Turned My Biggest Challenges into Success, Trump wrote about his “new talent,” adding he usually draws for charity and that “it takes me a few minutes to draw something, in my case, it’s usually a building or a cityscape of skyscrapers.”

He continued: “Art may not be my strong point, but the end result is help for people who need it.”

The page in the book even includes one of Trump’s drawings.

In January, prestigious auction house Sotheby’s sold another Trump portrait, this one in his beloved color of gold, for $15,000.

The sketch, said to be “reminiscent of Riverside South development project in Manhattan”, was originally done for a celebrity art auction to benefit Capuchin Food Pantry, dubbed “Doodle for Hunger.”

While the picture was dated “2004″ by Trump, Sotheby’s states it was initially drawn in 2003, the same year he allegedly sent another doodle to his close friend Jeffrey Epstein.

The bombshell story in the Wall Street Journal claims that Trump contributed to a 50th birthday book collated for Epstein by Ghislaine Maxwell, which included bawdy sketches and letters from many of his friends.

Trump’s contribution allegedly included a sketch of a naked woman in black marker, with Donald scrawled below her waist to mimic pubic hair. The letter was signed off: “Happy Birthday—and may every day be another wonderful secret.”

Trump claimed on Truth Social that the letter was “FAKE.”


This Donald Trump sketch sold for $20,000. Heritage Auctions
In 2017, another one of Trump’s signature New York City skyline drawings sold for $29,184. It was also originally done for charity in 2005. The same year, another NYC skyline doodle, originally created for the St Francis Food Pantries and Shelters and also drawn in 2005, sold for $20,000.


Donald Trump's George Washington Bridge drawing circa 2006 from Julien's Auctions. Julien's
Julien’s Auctions also sold a Trump 2006 original they titled ‘George Washington Bridge’ for $4480. It is described as an “original ink illustration on paper” and “signed in black ink by Donald Trump lower center.” The drawing in the letter referenced in The Journal story was also in black marker.


Donald Trump drawing of the Empire State Building from Julien's Auctions. Julien's Auctions
In 2017, a sketch of the Empire State Building by Trump sold for $16,000 by Julien’s Auctions in Los Angeles. Trump had originally drawn the sketch at his Florida Mar-a-Lago estate for a charity auction, according to The New York Times. At that time, the sketch sold for less than $100.

Julien’s note that the artwork is “a hand-drawn sketch of the Empire State Building executed in black marker by Donald J. Trump and signed by Trump.”

The Daily Beast contacted the White House for clarification about whether Trump had indeed drawn before, following the resurfacing of artwork seemingly done by his hand.

The White House referred the Beast to the president’s Truth Social post.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-sketchy-epstein-lie-instantly-exposed/

 

So, where have I heard failed artist becomes fascist leader before?

 

Trump sues Murdoch, Dow Jones over WSJ story on Epstein birthday letter: court records

Key Points

• President Donald Trump sued Rupert Murdoch for libel after his Wall Street Journal published an article saying Trump sent Jeffrey Epstein a “bawdy” letter for Epstein’s 50th birthday.
• The Journal reported that the letter, allegedly sent in 2003, was among documents included in evidence assembled by federal criminal investigators as part of their probe of Epstein.
• Trump and Epstein had been friends, but fell out years before Epstein was arrested on charges of child sex trafficking in 2019.

President Donald Trump on Friday followed through on his threat to sue media mogul Rupert Murdoch after his Wall Street Journal published an article saying that Trump sent Jeffrey Epstein a “bawdy” letter for Epstein’s 50th birthday, courts records show.

Trump filed a lawsuit alleging libel against Murdoch, the Journal’s publisher, Dow Jones, and the two reporters who wrote the article in federal court for the Southern District of Florida, according to that court’s docket. The complaint was not immediately available.


“I look forward to getting Rupert Murdoch to testify in my lawsuit against him and his ‘pile of garbage’ newspaper, the WSJ. That will be an interesting experience!!!” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post earlier Friday.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/18/trump-sues-epstein-murdoch-wsj.html

 

And you don't think you'll have to testify too, Mr Trump?