Trump suing Murdoch's WSJ over Epstein claim
Trump filed the lawsuit in federal court in the Southern District of Florida on Friday against Dow Jones, News Corp, Rupert Murdoch and two Wall Street Journal reporters, accusing the defendants of defamation and saying they acted with malicious intent that caused him overwhelming financial and reputational harm.
He is seeking at least $US10 billion ($NZ16.7 billion) in damages.
Trump, 79, has vehemently denied the Journal report, which Reuters has not verified, and warned Murdoch, the founder of News Corp, that he planned to sue. Dow Jones, the parent of the newspaper, is a division of News Corp.
"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 said in a post on Truth Social on Friday morning.
Representatives of Dow Jones, News Corp and Murdoch could not be reached for comment.
Disgraced financier and sex offender Epstein died by suicide in a New York jail cell in 2019. He was 66.
The case has generated conspiracy theories that became popular among Trump's base of supporters who believed the government was covering up Epstein's ties to the rich and powerful.
Some of Trump's most loyal followers became furious after his administration reversed course on its promise to release files related to the Epstein investigation.
A Justice Department memo released on July 7 concluded that Epstein killed himself and said there was "no incriminating client list" or evidence that Epstein blackmailed prominent people.
Attorney General Pam Bondi had pledged months earlier to reveal major revelations about Epstein, including "a lot of names" and "a lot of flight logs."
With pressure to release the Epstein files building, Trump on Thursday said he directed Bondi to ask a court to release grand jury testimony about Epstein.
The United States government on Friday filed a motion in Manhattan federal court to unseal grand jury transcripts in the cases of Epstein and his former associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who in 2021 was convicted of five federal charges related to her role in Epstein's sexual abuse of underage girls. The 63-year-old former socialite is serving a 20-year sentence.
"Public officials, lawmakers, pundits, and ordinary citizens remain deeply interested and concerned about the Epstein matter," Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in the filing. "After all, Jeffrey Epstein is the most infamous paedophile in American history."
Blanche called the transcripts "critical pieces of an important moment in our nation's history," and said "the time for the public to guess what they contain should end."
He said prosecutors would work to redact all victim-identifying information before making anything public.
BAWDY LETTER
The Journal said the letter bearing Trump's name was part of a leather-bound birthday book for Epstein that included messages from other high-profile people.
The newspaper said the letter contains several lines of typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman, which appeared to be hand-drawn with a heavy marker. It said the letter concludes "Happy Birthday - and may every day be another wonderful secret," and featured the signature "Donald."
Allegations that Epstein had been sexually abusing girls became public in 2006 - after the birthday book was allegedly produced - and he was arrested that year before accepting a plea deal. Epstein died just over a month after he was arrested for a second time and charged with sex-trafficking conspiracy.
Trump, who was photographed with Epstein multiple times in social situations in the 1990s and early 2000s, told reporters in 2019 that he ended his relationship with Epstein before his legal troubles became apparent.
In 2002 Trump, a Florida neighbour of Epstein's, was quoted in New York magazine as saying, "I've known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy. 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."
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office in 2019, Trump said he and Epstein had a "falling out" before the financier was first arrested.
Trump said he "knew him like everybody in Palm Beach knew him" but that, "I had a falling out with him. I haven't spoken to him in 15 years. I was not a fan of his, that I can tell you."
WHAT TRANSCRIPTS COULD SHOW
The release of the grand jury documents may fall short of what many of Trump's supporters have sought, including case files held by the administration.
Grand juries review evidence from prosecutors to determine whether people should be indicted for crimes. This includes hearsay, improperly obtained information and other evidence that prosecutors would not be allowed to present at trial.
Transcripts of grand jury proceedings are generally kept secret under federal criminal procedure rules, with limited exceptions.
A judge may allow disclosure of grand jury matters in connection with judicial proceedings, or at the request of defendants who believe it could lead to the dismissal of their indictments.
It is likely that some material released from grand jury proceedings would be redacted, or blacked out, because of privacy or security concerns.
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NZ Herald
an hour ago
- NZ Herald
Inside a 15-year bond between Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein
Another accuser recalled being eyed by Trump during a brief encounter in Epstein's office and claimed that Epstein had told Trump at the time, 'She's not for you'. Another woman has said that Trump groped her when Epstein brought her to Trump Tower in Manhattan to meet him. This past week, the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump gave Epstein a note for his 50th birthday in 2003 that included a sketch of a naked woman and a cryptic reference to a 'secret' the two men shared. Trump has denied writing the message and filed a libel lawsuit challenging the story. The New York Times has not verified the Journal report. Trump has never been accused of wrongdoing in connection with the Epstein case and has said he had 'no idea' that Epstein was abusing young women. In response to a request for comment about the United States President's history with Epstein, Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said Trump had barred Epstein from his Mar-a-Lago club 'for being a creep'. 'These stories are tired and pathetic attempts to distract from all the success of President Trump's Administration,' she said in a statement. Trump and Epstein largely went separate ways after a falling-out around 2004, taking drastically different paths — one towards jail and suicide, the other towards further celebrity and the White House. As criticism of the handling of Epstein's case mounted over the years, some of Trump's staunchest allies promoted theories that the government had covered up the extent of his network to protect what they have described as a cabal of powerful men and celebrities, largely Democrats. Now, that story has entangled Trump himself in what amounts to one of the biggest controversies in his second White House stint. The conflict has come primarily from his own appointees, who, after months of promoting interest in the files, abruptly changed course and said there was no secret Epstein client list and backed the official finding that Epstein had killed himself. Still, under mounting pressure from his own supporters to release the government's files on Epstein, the President ordered the Justice Department to seek the unsealing of grand jury testimony in the criminal case brought against Epstein in 2019 and one year later against his longtime partner, Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year sentence on a sex-trafficking conviction. She has asked the Supreme Court to consider her appeal. Even if they are released, the transcripts are unlikely to shed much light on the relationship between the two men, which did not figure prominently in either criminal case. What seemed to draw them together, according to those who knew them at the time, was a common interest in hitting on — and competing for — attractive young women at parties, nightclubs, and other private events. Virginia Giuffre, who maintained that she was trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell to Prince Andrew and other famous men, and who died by suicide last April, speaks at a news conference outside court after Epstein's jailhouse suicide, on August 27, 2019. Photo / Jefferson Siegel, the New York Times Palm Beach neighbours Trump and Epstein appear to have met around 1990, when Epstein bought a property 3.2km north of Mar-a-Lago and set about staking a claim in Palm Beach's moneyed, salt-air social scene. Trump, who had purchased Mar-a-Lago five years earlier, had already established his own brash presence in the seaside enclave as a playboy with a taste for gold-leaf finery. The two had much in common. Both were outer-borough New Yorkers who had succeeded in Manhattan. Both were energetic self-promoters. And both had reputations as showy men about town. In 1992, an NBC News camera captured the pair at a Mar-a-Lago party that featured cheerleaders from the Buffalo Bills, who were in town that weekend for a game against the Miami Dolphins. At one point in the footage, Trump can be seen dancing amid a crowd of young women. Later, he appears to be pointing at other women while whispering something in Epstein's ear, causing him to double over with laughter. Months later, when Trump hosted a party at Mar-a-Lago for young women in a so-called calendar girl competition, Epstein was the only other guest, according to George Houraney, a Florida-based businessman who arranged the event. Houraney recalled being surprised that Epstein was the only other person on the guest list. 'I said, 'Donald, this is supposed to be a party with VIPs,'' Houraney told the New York Times in 2019. 'You're telling me it's you and Epstein?'' Houraney's then-girlfriend and business partner, Jill Harth, later accused Trump of sexual misconduct on the night of the party. In a lawsuit, Harth said Trump took her into a bedroom and forcibly kissed and groped her and restrained her from leaving. She also said that a 22-year-old contestant told her that Trump later that night crawled into her bed uninvited. Harth dropped her suit in 1997 after a related case filed by Houraney was settled by Trump, who has denied her allegations. Trump and Epstein were spotted again at a 1997 Victoria's Secret 'Angels' party in Manhattan. The lingerie company was run by Leslie H. Wexner, a billionaire businessman who handed Epstein sweeping power over his finances, philanthropy, and private life within years of meeting him. Court records show that Trump was among those who got rides on Epstein's private jet. Over four years in the 1990s, he flew on Epstein's Boeing 727 at least seven times, largely making jaunts between Palm Beach and a private airport in Teterboro, New Jersey, just outside New York. 'I've known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy,' Trump told New York magazine in 2002. '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.' An Encounter at Mar-a-Lago In 2000, court records show, Maxwell, a British socialite who had long been tied to Epstein, struck up a conversation with a 17-year-old girl outside a locker room at Mar-a-Lago. Her name was Virginia Giuffre, and she was a spa attendant at the club, having got the job through her father, who worked there as a maintenance man. According to Giuffre, Maxwell offered her a job on the spot as a masseuse for Epstein after seeing that she was reading a book about massage, telling her that she did not need to have any experience. She said that when she was brought to Epstein's Palm Beach home, she found him lying naked on a table. Maxwell, she claimed, instructed her on how to massage him. 'They seemed like nice people,' she later testified, 'so I trusted them.' But over the next two years or so, Giuffre claimed that she was forced by Epstein and Maxwell to have sex with a series of famous men, including Prince Andrew. The prince has denied the accusations and declined to help federal prosecutors in their investigation of Epstein. Giuffre, who died by suicide in April, always maintained that she was trafficked to the prince and other men, once telling the BBC that she had been 'passed around like a platter of fruit' to Epstein's powerful associates. Some women who were in Epstein's orbit have said they encountered Trump during this period. One woman, Maria Farmer, who has said she was victimised by Epstein and Maxwell, described an encounter with Trump in 1995 at an office that Epstein once kept in New York City. An art student who had moved to New York City to pursue a career as a painter, Farmer recalled in a 2019 interview that when she was introduced to Trump, he eyed her, prompting Epstein to warn him, 'She's not for you'. Farmer's mother, Janice Swain, said her daughter had described the interaction with Trump around the time it occurred. Stacey Williams, a former Sports Illustrated swimsuit model, has said she was groped by Trump when she was introduced to him by Epstein, whom she was dating at the time. It was 1993, she said, and she was on a walk with Epstein on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan when he suggested that they pop into Trump Tower to say hello to Trump. Williams thought nothing of it at the time because, as she later put it, 'Jeffrey talked about Trump all the time'. After Trump greeted them in a waiting area outside his office, Williams said, he pulled her toward him, touching her breasts, waist and buttocks as if he was 'an octopus.' She said she later wondered whether she had been part of a challenge or wager between the two men. 'I definitely felt like I was a piece of meat delivered to that office as some sort of game,' she recalled to the New York Times last year. At the time, Trump's presidential campaign denied that the episode had occurred, calling the allegations 'unequivocally false' and politically motivated. In an interview last week, Williams said she was upset to hear Trump referring to some of the Epstein story as a 'hoax' and 'boring' news. 'I mean, it's absurd,' she said of his speaking dismissively of the case. Attorney-General Pam Bondi speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House. The Justice Department asked a federal judge to unseal grand jury testimony from the prosecution of the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein as President Trump seeks to dispel a storm of criticism and conspiracy theories coming from many of his supporters. Photo / Eric Lee, the New York Times Parting Ways Eventually, in late 2004, Trump and Epstein ended up squaring off — this time, over a piece of real estate. It was the Maison de l'Amitié, a French Regency-style manse that sat along the ocean in Palm Beach. The two hypercompetitive men each had their lawyers bid on the property. Ultimately, Trump came out ahead, purchasing it for US$41.35 million ($70m). There is little public record of the two men interacting after that. Trump later told associates he had another reason for breaking from Epstein around that time. His longtime friend, he has said, acted inappropriately to the daughter of a member of Mar-a-Lago, and Trump felt compelled to bar him from the club. Brad Edwards, a lawyer who has represented many of Epstein's victims, said Trump told him a similar story in 2009. Not long after the standoff over the beachfront mansion, the Palm Beach police received a tip that young women had been seen going in and out of Epstein's home. Four months later, there was a more substantial complaint from a woman who claimed that her 14-year-old stepdaughter had been paid US$300 by Epstein to give him a massage while she was undressed. That led to a sprawling undercover investigation that identified at least a dozen potential victims. Epstein hired a team of top lawyers to defend him — including Alan Dershowitz, a Harvard law professor who would later represent Trump, and Ken Starr, the former independent counsel who investigated President Bill Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky. The two men helped negotiate a lenient plea deal with R. Alexander Acosta, who was then the US Attorney for the Southern District of Florida. Under the deal, Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to state charges of soliciting prostitution from a minor. In exchange, he was granted immunity from federal charges, as were all of his potential co-conspirators. He also had to register as a sex offender. In the end, Epstein wound up serving almost 13 months in jail before he was released. For his part, Trump largely steered clear of the controversy. But in February 2015, as he was gearing up for what would end up being a hard-fought campaign against Hillary Clinton, he sought to connect Epstein to her husband. Bill Clinton has 'got a lot of problems coming up, in my opinion, with the famous island with Jeffrey Epstein', Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity during an appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference, referring to Epstein's private island where he resided and was suspected of trafficking underage girls. 'A lot of problems.' Clinton has denied visiting the island or having any knowledge of Epstein's criminal behaviour and has said he wishes he had never met him. 'I Wasn't a Fan' In July 2019, Epstein was arrested again. Prosecutors from the public corruption unit of the US Attorney's office in Manhattan charged him with sex trafficking and a conspiracy to traffic minors for sex. Trump, then in his third year in the White House, immediately sought to distance himself from his old friend. 'I knew him like everybody in Palm Beach knew him,' Trump told reporters after the charges were revealed. 'I mean, people in Palm Beach knew him. He was a fixture in Palm Beach. I had a falling out with him a long time ago. I don't think I've spoken to him in 15 years. I wasn't a fan.' The new charges brought renewed scrutiny to the original plea deal. Days after Epstein's arrest, Acosta, who had become Trump's Labour Secretary, announced he would resign amid criticism of his handling of the case. Speaking to reporters about Acosta's decision, Trump reiterated that he had broken off his ties with Epstein 'many, many years ago'. He added: 'It shows you one thing: that I have good taste'. Asked if he had any suspicions that Epstein was molesting young women, Trump replied, 'No, I had no idea'. The next month, after Epstein was found dead in his jail cell in Manhattan in what was later ruled a suicide, Trump weighed in again, reviving what was by then a years-old effort from his first campaign. He shared a social media post that tried to link the death to Bill Clinton. Days later, when pressed about his unfounded claims of Clinton's involvement, Trump did not let up, calling for a full investigation, even though he offered no facts to support his allegations. 'Epstein had an island that was not a good place, as I understand it,' he said. 'And I was never there. So you have to ask: Did Bill Clinton go to the island?' When Trump was asked about the arrest of Maxwell in the summer of 2020 on charges that included the enticement and trafficking of children, his answer left some of his own allies confused. 'I wish her well, whatever it is,' Trump said. In recent weeks, right-wing influencers and Trump's rank-and-file supporters expressed outrage over his Administration's conclusion that there were no revelations to share about the case — not least because some of the President's top law enforcement officials, including Attorney-General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel, had promised to reveal more information about Epstein's crimes. Trump sought to quiet the demands, calling the Epstein scandal a 'hoax' made up by his Democratic adversaries. He also described it as a subject unworthy of further scrutiny. 'Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein?' Trump asked reporters with exasperation at a Cabinet meeting on July 8. 'This guy's been talked about for years.' This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Written by: Alan Feuer and Matthew Goldstein Photographs by: Doug Mills, Jefferson Siegel, Eric Lee ©2025 THE NEW YORK TIMES
Otago Daily Times
4 hours ago
- Otago Daily Times
Half-smiles as Trump offers Ukraine limited aid
There was rejoicing when US President Donald Trump announced that he was going to let Ukraine have weapons after all, but it was conspicuously contained joy. Half-smiles and sighs of relief were plentiful; cheers were absent or faked. The Ukrainians were relieved because this is the first time they will be getting weapons actually ordered by Trump. The stop-go dribble of arms that the US has sent Ukraine at intervals in the past five months was really the tail-end of Joe Biden's last package, although Trump had to approve each shipment. What Trump is willing to send now remains unclear, but at least it's on his own initiative and $US10 billion has been mentioned. And Ukrainians don't care that the money will really be provided by other Nato members, who will buy the weapons from the US but pass them on Ukraine's armed forces. What does concern Ukrainians is that Trump's threatened "secondary tariffs" (more accurately secondary sanctions) on countries like India and China that are still buying cut-rate Russian oil and gas and supporting Moscow's war economy will not start for 50 more days. That gives Russian President Vladimir Putin 49 more days to bomb Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities with impunity, and Trump is notorious for shifting his deadlines to later dates. (Taco, as they say — "Trump always chickens out".) Moreover, Trump warned Ukraine not to attack Moscow in return. So, the Russian reaction to Trump's apparent change of heart was relief that it wasn't worse. It is mostly "hot air", wrote Konstantin Kosachev, a senior Russian politician, on Telegram. "A lot can change in 50 days — on the battlefield and in the mindset of those in power, both in the US and in Nato." That's mostly correct, but not so much about Nato, most of whose other members have privately concluded that the United States under Trump is no longer a trustworthy ally. That leaves them dreadfully exposed if Russia conquers Ukraine and they become the next item on Putin's agenda. The historical division of labour within the Nato alliance has left the Europeans lacking in key military categories like aerial surveillance, satellite data and nuclear deterrence. Trump imagines that the recent commitment of most Nato countries to spend 5% of GDP on defence — twice or more than they were spending two years ago — was a response to his demands. It was really a decision to achieve strategic independence from the United States. They have realised they are on their own. Their problem is that it will take at least five years of strenuous effort to reach that goal, and until then they will still need US support — which explains the fake adulation and fulsome flattery they offer Trump at every opportunity. Boot-licking is hard work, and they probably can't keep it up for five years, but every month makes a difference. Most European decision-makers understand that a Russian victory in Ukraine must be avoided at all costs, and that they must therefore do whatever they can to keep Trump on side. Is that really possible? Not if the slide of the United States into a "soft fascism" accelerates. Not if China invades Taiwan and panics the US into a global war. Not if Putin dies or is overthrown, only for an even more ruthless and reckless ruler to take his place. The negative possibilities are big and plausible — but so are less disastrous outcomes. It is still possible to draw a credible scenario in which the current stalemate in Ukraine endures for another year or so and then reaches an "in-place" ceasefire like the one that has lasted in Korea for 72 years. It is possible that the US can be kept in Nato long enough for the European members plus Canada to get their act together and become an independent strategic body. It is possible that China will retain its half-hearted loyalty to the international rule of law and not become another rogue state. It is likewise possible that the United States, having spent some time under a capricious and authoritarian government, will return to its democratic roots, which run very deep. Regime change in Russia might reawaken the desire for democracy that was so prominent in the late 1980s and early '90s. It's not over until the fat lady sings. It's not even over after the fat lady sings. We are heading into a period where all bets are off because climate change will change all other calculations, and the only rational response will be co-operation on a global scale. No promises, but despair is rarely the right move. — Gwynne Dyer is an independent London journalist.
RNZ News
11 hours ago
- RNZ News
Five questions about the relationship between Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein
By Aaron Blake , CNN Composite image of Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump. Photo: AFP / NEW YORK STATE SEX OFFENDER REGISTRY/HANDOUT Analysis - A Wall Street Journal report earlier this week added new scrutiny to President Donald Trump's relationship with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The Journal reported that Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell asked Trump and many others to submit letters for an album for Epstein's 50th birthday in 2003. A letter bearing Trump's name included a lewd outline of a naked woman and an imagined conversation between Trump and Epstein, according to the Journal. In the conversation, the two men reflect on how they share some kind of secret knowledge about how there's "more to life than having everything." "Happy Birthday - and may every day be another wonderful secret," Trump concludes in this imagined conversation, according to the Journal. The president has denied he wrote the letter, and on Friday (US time), he filed a libel lawsuit against the publisher of the Wall Street Journal and the reporters who wrote the story. "This is not me. This is a fake thing. It's a fake Wall Street Journal story," Trump told the Journal in an interview earlier this week. "I never wrote a picture in my life. I don't draw pictures of women." Trump added in a social media post after the story published: "These are not my words, not the way I talk. Also, I don't draw pictures." It's been no secret that Trump and Epstein were friendly in the period before Epstein was charged with solicitation of prostitution in the mid 2000s. There are plenty of photos of them together. But the new report - along with Trump's demands that his supporters stop pursuing questions about Epstein in the wake of his administration's botched handling of promised disclosures - has rekindled interest in the matter. Trump has now relented a bit on disclosure, instructing the Justice Department to seek to unseal "any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony, subject to Court approval." (The DOJ moved to do that on Friday, but it's possible that won't reveal much or happen anytime soon, given grand jury testimony is typically kept secret. And that testimony is only a small piece of the relevant information.) So, what do we know so far about Trump and Epstein's relationship? Here are some key questions. There are conflicting signals on this. And Trump's strained efforts to downplay their ties have raised plenty of questions. After Epstein was arrested and charged with sex trafficking of minors in 2019, Trump distanced himself. "Well, I knew him like everybody in Palm Beach knew him," Trump told reporters during his first term. "I mean, people in Palm Beach knew him. He was a fixture in Palm Beach. I had a falling out with him a long time ago. I don't think I've spoken to him for 15 years. I wasn't a fan." Trump then repeated twice more that he had not been "a fan" of Epstein's. Donald Trump jokes with Jeffrey Epstein at a Mar-a-Lago party filled with women in 1992. Photo: Screengrab / YouTube His account of not speaking to Epstein since the 2000s is backed up by reporting. The Washington Post has reported that the two men had a falling-out while competing over the same Palm Beach oceanfront property in 2004. That would place the falling-out before Epstein began getting in serious legal trouble; in 2006, Epstein was charged with soliciting a prostitute, and that same year reports surfaced that he had been under investigation for allegedly having sex with minors. But Trump's suggestion that his relationship with Epstein was more incidental and his claim that he "was not a fan" of Epstein's has been called into question, including by Trump's own commentary. Their relationship appeared to stretch back to the 1980s. Trump flew on Epstein's jets between Palm Beach and New York, according to flight logs. They socialised at each other's properties. The New York Times reported that, in 1992, Mar-a-Lago played host to a "calendar girl" competition in which about two dozen women were flown in. But the only guests present were Trump and Epstein, according to a Florida businessman who organised the event, George Houraney. (Trump's White House didn't comment to the Times for the 2019 story.) Most infamously, Trump in 2002 told New York magazine that Epstein was a "terrific guy." "He's a lot of fun to be with," Trump said. "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." Former Trump aide Sam Nunberg told the Washington Post in 2019 that he had pressed Trump about his ties to Epstein in 2014 when Trump was considering a presidential run. "Bottom line, Donald would hang out with Epstein because he was rich," Nunberg said, assuring Trump had severed ties long ago. Precisely how close Trump and Epstein were isn't totally clear. Was this just a situation of powerful men occasionally partying together and sharing Epstein's private plane because that's what rich guys do? These are social situations tough for most Americans to understand. But even if Trump really was somehow "not a fan," he's made other dodgy claims. In January 2024, he said on social media: "I was never on Epstein's Plane ..." In fact, flight logs had already shown Trump flew on it seven times in the 1990s. Trump also claimed in 2019 that he didn't "know Prince Andrew" of Britain, who has been the subject of Epstein-related allegations, despite a number of photos showing Trump with the Duke of York. Trump often lies and misleads in his public statements. And he certainly has reason to downplay his ties to Epstein. But going too far in that direction undercuts your credibility and feeds suspicion about what you might be hiding. Precisely what the Journal's story will mean going forward isn't clear - although it's already rallied MAGA influencers who were critical of the administration's handling of the Epstein files to Trump's side. The idea that Trump would submit a letter for Epstein's birthday album isn't that surprising, given this was when the two of them were seemingly on better terms (2003) and that dozens of other letters were reportedly solicited. The idea that Trump would be lewd in that letter also tracks, given his past. (See: The "Access Hollywood" tape .) But Trump - and many of those vocal supporters - have said this doesn't sound like him or something he would create. Far-right activist Laura Loomer - who'd called for the administration to appoint a special counsel to look into the handling of the Epstein files - quickly came to Trump's defence Thursday night. "Everyone who actually KNOWS President Trump knows he doesn't type letters. He writes notes in big black Sharpie," she posted on X. But while Trump maintains he doesn't draw pictures, his drawings have surfaced before. A signed Trump sketch of the Manhattan skyline sold at auction in 2017 for more than $29,000. (The sketch was reportedly from 2005, two years after the letter in question.) Another 1990s Trump sketch of the Empire State Building auctioned off the same year. And Trump in a 2008 book recalled donating an autographed doodle every year to a charity. Of course, none of that proves he wrote this letter and drew the accompanying picture. But again, Trump is undercutting his own credibility. Why lie about doodling - especially since it's easily disprovable? And it's possible we could learn more about this. There has been some talk about having Maxwell - who the Journal reported solicited the letter - testify before Congress. Trump's efforts to quiet chatter about Epstein have only furthered suspicion in some corners that his name could be in the files his administration has failed to produce. We already know that Trump's name was in Epstein's flight logs. An Epstein personal address book that leaked in 2009 contained 14 phone numbers for Trump, Melania Trump and Trump's staff, according to media reports. A 2005 search of Epstein's Palm Beach mansion produced two written messages about phone calls from Trump. Protestors hold signs calling for the release of files regarding late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on 17 July 2025. Photo: Ronaldo Schemidt / AFP So, it's not inconceivable he's in the files his supporters have been clamoring for. Merely being named, of course, wouldn't mean Trump had done anything wrong. But it could create political headaches - as the fallout from the Journal story shows - and as demonstrated by Trump's very public reluctance to release more documents. Former top Trump adviser Elon Musk alleged last month while lashing out at Trump that the president was indeed in the Epstein files, adding, "That is the real reason they have not been made public." But he provided no evidence for his claims and later deleted the post. Trump was asked Tuesday if Attorney General Pam Bondi had told him his name was in the files, and he didn't directly answer. "She's given us just a very quick briefing in terms of the credibility of the different things that they've seen," Trump said. Trump's 2002 comment about Epstein's taste for women "on the younger side" has also loomed over him, furthering theories that he might have known something about what Epstein had been up to. That remains speculative and unproven. Trump also said nothing about underage girls; he cited young "women." But questions about who knew what and when with Epstein's conduct have long lingered. Trump's Mar-a-Lago property was a backdrop to some of Epstein's misdeeds. And Epstein and Trump's social connections often revolved around women. According to Nunberg's 2019 account to the Washington Post, Trump said he banned Epstein from Mar-a-Lago because of misconduct. Nunberg said Trump said he did so because Epstein had recruited a young woman who worked there to give him massages. This was years before the Epstein investigation became public knowledge, according to the Post. "He's a real creep, I banned him," Nunberg said Trump had told him. Multiple reports, including a 2020 book by reporters for the Miami Herald and Wall Street Journal, have linked Epstein's ban from Mar-a-Lago to alleged overtures to the teenage daughter of a Mar-a-Lago member. Late Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre said she was recruited into the sex-trafficking ring while working at Mar-a-Lago in 2000. Houraney also told the Times in 2019 that he raised concerns to Trump about Epstein's conduct ahead of that 1992 "calendar girl" event. "I said, 'Look, Donald, I know Jeff really well, I can't have him going after younger girls,'" Houraney said. "He said, 'Look I'm putting my name on this. I wouldn't put my name on it and have a scandal.'" Trump appears to have been helpful to those probing Epstein's conduct, but we know little about what he said because he was never deposed. One attorney for Epstein's alleged victims has said Trump in 2009 was a very willing interview subject. The attorney, Brad Edwards, said Trump "gave no indication whatsoever that he was involved in anything untoward whatsoever." While Trump in 2019 quickly distanced himself from Epstein, his commentary the following year after Maxwell was charged was different - and somewhat bizarre. "But I wish her well, whatever it is," Trump told reporters in late July 2020. Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. Photo: Handout / US District Court for the Southern District of New York / AFP Despite significant criticism of that - wishing an accused (and later-convicted) child sex trafficker well - Trump a couple weeks later doubled and tripled down when pressed by then-Axios reporter Jonathan Swan on how odd that sounded. "Yeah, I wish her well," Trump told Swan. "I'd wish you well. I'd wish a lot of people well. Good luck. Let them prove somebody was guilty." Trump added, when pressed again: "I do wish her well. I'm not looking for anything bad for her. I'm not looking bad for anybody." Even for a president who often says weird things, this ranks near the top. - CNN
