White House Denies Signature on Trump’s Letter to Epstein Is Real

The White House is denying the authenticity of a newly released letter that President Donald Trump reportedly sent to Jeffrey Epstein for his 50th birthday, suggesting that the signature shown does not match current documents.

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee on Monday released an image of the letter, which shows the outline of a naked woman inlaid with a short message that ends: “may every day be a wonderful secret.”

It was just one of a number of documents released to the committee by the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender’s estate.

But White House officials on Monday doubled down on their denials, despite the image circulating widely online.

“The latest piece published by the Wall Street Journal PROVES this entire ‘Birthday Card’ story is false,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt posted to X. “As I have said all along, it’s very clear President Trump did not draw this picture, and he did not sign it. President Trump’s legal team will continue to aggressively pursue litigation.”

White House deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich also posted to X denying the validity of the signature.

“Time for @newscorp to open that checkbook, it’s not his signature,” Budowich wrote, alongside a photo of a paper recently signed by the president. “DEFAMATION!”

Vice President JD Vance also claimed that the letter was faked, arguing that the Democrats who shared it had ulterior motives.

The Democrats don’t care about Epstein,” he wrote in a statement. “They don’t even care about his victims. That’s why they were silent about it for years. The only thing they care about is concocting another fake scandal like Russiagate to smear President Trump with lies.”

“No one is falling for this BS,” Vance added.

An Oversight Committee aide told NOTUS that it had also obtained Epstein’s will, his 2007 non-prosecution agreement, entries from his address and contact books and bank account information.

The story quickly gathered steam on Capitol Hill thanks to the letter and a headline-grabbing statement by House Speaker Mike Johnson on Friday that claimed Trump’s apparent friendship with Epstein had only come about because Trump was FBI informant gathering information.

Speaking from Capitol Hill on Monday after the Oversight Committee released an image of Trump’s letter, Johnson backtracked on the claim, saying he hadn’t used the “right terminology.”

“What I was referring to, in that long conversation, is what the victim’s attorney said,” Johnson told CNN’s Manu Raju. “More than a decade ago, President Trump kicked Epstein out of Mar-a-Lago, and he was one of the only prominent people … to call law enforcement and tell them to go after this guy.”

When asked if he had any information about Trump wearing a wire, Johnson responded: “I have no information on that whatsoever.”

Last week, Johnson told reporters on Capitol Hill that Trump cared deeply about Epstein’s crimes and “was an FBI informant to try to take this stuff down.”

The Trump administration is suing Rupert Murdoch and The Wall Street Journal over its reporting of the birthday card, calling the story “false, malicious, and defamatory.”