Epstein files: House panel releases drawing for disgraced financier apparently signed by Trump

A key congressional committee on Monday released a note and sexually suggestive drawing containing what appeared to be Donald Trump’s signature that was included in a book for disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th birthday in 2003 — a drawing that Mr Trump has insisted he did not create.

The drawing — a figure of a naked woman with “Donald” written below her waist — was part of a batch of documents turned over by Epstein’s estate to the House Oversight Committee, which had subpoenaed them. The panel published most of the documents, including a redacted copy of the birthday book, on Monday evening, local time.

The sketch, in thick black ink, outlines text that quotes an imagined conversation between Mr Trump and Epstein, with what appears to be Trump’s first name scrawled in his distinctive handwriting.

The release of the drawing and the birthday book only intensified a furore that the president has been toiling to stamp out over his administration’s handling of the Epstein files, and its decision not to fully release them, an issue that has divided Republicans and alienated many of Trump’s right-wing supporters.

In the face of an effort to force a House vote that would compel the release of the Epstein files, Republican leaders have been arguing that the Oversight Committee’s investigation would provide greater transparency into the case of Epstein, a convicted sex offender who died in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges, in what was later ruled a suicide.

Democrats quickly seized on the drawing to renew their calls for the Trump administration to divulge all of its files related to its investigation of Epstein.

“The Oversight Committee has secured the infamous ‘Birthday Book’ that contains a note from President Trump that he has said does not exist,” Representative Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the committee, said in a statement. “It’s time for the president to tell us the truth about what he knew and release all the Epstein files.”

White House officials denied that the image was created by the president.

“As I have said all along, it’s very clear President Trump did not draw this picture, and he did not sign it,” Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, wrote on social media.

Taylor Budowich, the deputy chief of staff for communications, said in his own post that the signature was not Mr Trump’s, sharing recent photos of autographed items on which the president’s signature looks more angular.

But several pieces of personal correspondence reviewed by The New York Times that Mr Trump signed with just his first name decades ago, closer to the time period of the birthday book, look remarkably similar to the signature on the drawing. Like the sketch, they have more distinct individual letters and a long tail of ink at the end of the final “d” in “Donald.” The Times obtained copies of the documents several years ago from the official New York City archives of former Mayors Rudy Giuliani and Ed Koch.

The Trump administration has been grappling for months with an escalating backlash over its handling of the Epstein files, after top Justice Department officials backtracked on a promise to release revealing material about his case.

Many of Mr Trump’s right-wing supporters were angered by the apparent reversal, opening a rift within the Republican Party that briefly stalled its legislative agenda in July. Facing discontent in their ranks, Republican leaders are trying to suppress a bipartisan effort to force the House to vote on a bill that would require the Justice Department to quickly and fully release its material on Epstein.

Democrats teamed with Republicans on the oversight panel in July to force its Republican chair, Representative James Comer of Kentucky, to issue a subpoena for the Justice Department’s files. Mr Comer issued another subpoena in August to Epstein’s estate, which provided a copy of the birthday book, among other materials, in response, according to a committee aide.

Details of the drawing and note were reported by The Wall Street Journal in July. The President has vehemently denied writing the letter or drawing the figure, and has sued the Journal for defamation. At the time, Mr Trump wrote on social media, “The supposed letter they printed by President Trump to Epstein was a FAKE.”

Mr Trump and Epstein were friendly in the 1990s and 2000s, with their relationship appearing to fizzle out around 2004. The letter in the birthday book appears to be an imagined script of a conversation in which they discuss life having value beyond material possessions.

“We have certain things in common, Jeffrey,” one line from the note attributed to Trump says. It closes with a reference to a “wonderful secret” the two men share.

The book is a collection of letters, photographs and drawings from dozens of Epstein’s associates bound into three volumes spanning more than 200 pages. While some of the messages contain mundane birthday wishes, others offer a window into a misogynistic circle of wealthy men fixated on women and sex.

Many of them included suggestive stories or crude references to Epstein’s sexual appetites, and some indicated that his friends had at least some sense that he was engaged in inappropriate behaviour.

Mr Trump is mentioned in a letter in the book that appears to have been written by Joel Pashcow, the former chair of a real estate company in New York. A photo above the letter includes a large mock check, made to look as if it is being paid from Mr Trump to Epstein for $US22,500.

Beneath it, a handwritten caption referring to Epstein’s “early talents with money and women” claims that the photo shows Epstein selling a “fully depreciated” woman to Mr Trump.

The woman’s name and photo are redacted in the caption and the image. Lawyers for Epstein’s estate told the committee that they removed the names and photos of women and minors who appeared in the book in order to ensure that any potential victims of Epstein could not be identified, according to a copy of a letter to the committee that was viewed by the Times.

Mr Pashcow did not immediately respond to phone calls and emails requesting comment.

The Pashcow submission to the book appeared to include a drawn cartoon of Epstein. In a panel on the left captioned with the year 1983, a young man with patched jeans is handing a lollipop and balloons to three young girls. On the right, a man who appears to be Epstein is being massaged by numerous blond women, one of whom has a tattoo with his initials, “J.E.,” on her body. Epstein’s plane flies overhead, while below them is the year “2003” and the phrase “what a country.”

The submission just before one that appears to be signed by Mr Trump includes a poem that includes the stanza, “Jeffrey at half century, with credentials plenipotentiary, though up to no good whenever he could, has avoided the penitentiary.” The poem is signed “Stuey,” and the book’s table of contents suggests that it was written by Epstein’s onetime friend Stuart Pivar.

In addition to a copy of the birthday book, Epstein’s estate gave the Oversight Committee a copy of his will from shortly before his death; entries from his address books and contacts list; information about his bank accounts; and a copy of a 2007 agreement in which prosecutors agreed not to prosecute him on federal charges in connection with a sex trafficking investigation. The committee made most of those materials public Monday night.

Mr Comer accused Democrats of politicising the Epstein files, saying in a statement that they were “cherry-picking documents and politicising information.” His statement did not mention the sexually suggestive drawing and note, saying only that “President Trump is not accused of any wrongdoing.”

Mr Comer’s subpoena to the estate also requested a so-called client list of prominent figures to whom Epstein had supplied young women. Such a list has been at the centre of conspiratorial theories about Epstein’s death and the investigation into him.

But the estate’s lawyers said they were not aware of the existence of any such document, echoing the Justice Department’s conclusion that it did not exist.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.