Signature on Trump’s alleged Epstein note to be analysed
Donald Trump’s friendship with Jeffrey Epstein continues to haunt the US president as The White House denies he penned a lewd birthday message to the pedophile.
Source: X
The White House says it will support a forensic analysis of the signature on a letter purportedly given by Donald Trump to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Trump, who was friends with Epstein before becoming US President but had fallen out with the financier years before his death, has denied giving him a letter that appears in a birthday book for Epstein with the crude sketch of a woman’s body and a note about secrets.
On Monday (US time), Democrats in the US House of Representatives released the letter, which was written more than 20 years ago, to the public.
The White House quickly and repeatedly denied its authenticity.
Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said on Tuesday the White House would back an analysis of the signature to prove Trump right.
“The President did not write this letter. He did not sign this letter,” she said.
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A second letter from Epstein’s ‘birthday book, Donald Trump. Photo: TMZ
On Tuesday, Democrats released a second letter referencing Trump, which jokes about him buying a woman from Epstein.
The second letter allegedly contains a picture of Epstein and others, and a giant cheque. It is allegedly accompanied by a handwritten comment about Epstein selling a “fully depreciated” female to Trump for $22,500, in reference to the cheque.
“Jeffrey showing early talents with money + women sells ‘fully depreciated’ [redacted] to Donald Trump for $22,500,” the message says.
“Showed early ‘people skills’ too. Even though I handled the deal I didn’t get any of the money or the girl!”
In the image are Epstein, two other men and a woman holding the oversized cheque. The woman’s face in the photo and a woman’s name in the letter are blacked out.
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The Democrats said the person who wrote the missive was a “long-time Mar-a-Lago member”.
The release of the documents has brought renewed attention to an issue that has become a political thorn in Trump’s side.
Though he has urged his supporters to move on, appetite for details about Epstein’s crimes and who else may have known about them or been involved with him has remained high.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll completed on Tuesday found the US public continues to harbour suspicions about the Epstein case.
Some 65 per cent of respondents said the government was hiding information about his 2019 death in prison, which was ruled a suicide, and 72 per cent said it was hiding information about the accused sex trafficker’s client list. Both figures were up slightly from a similar survey in July.
However, the survey of 1084 adults found a bright spot for Trump: 44 per cent of Republican respondents said they approved of the way he was handling the Epstein matter, up from 35 per cent in July. Overall, only 17 per cent of the public approved of his handling of the issue.
Leavitt accused Democrats of trying to hurt Trump by focusing on the Epstein case.
“Republicans in the Trump Department of Justice have done more in terms of transparency when it comes to the Epstein case than any prior administration,” she said.
-with AAP
