President Donald Trump has, at this point, provided several implausible excuses for a slate of reports concerning his former friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Today, Trump threw out a new rationale for a Wall Street Journal report alleging he wrote a raunchy birthday letter to Epstein in 2003: Someone forged his signature.
Speaking today to reporters outside the White House, Trump was asked if he maintained that he didn’t write the supposed letter, which was reportedly featured in a book of similar congratulatory notes given to Epstein by his friends for his 50th birthday.
“I don’t even know what they’re talking about,” the president said. “Now, somebody could have written a letter and used my name, but that’s happened a lot.”
According to the Journal report last week, Trump’s salacious letter to Epstein featured a poem about how “we have certain things in common.” The letter reportedly referred to Epstein as a pal, and added: “Happy birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.”
Trump has notably already filed a lawsuit against the Journal and its reporters claiming that the letter doesn’t even exist — calling it “fake and nonexistent.” A lawyer representing Epstein’s victims asserted Wednesday that Epstein’s estate has, in its possession, a copy of the book of birthday notes sent to the disgraced financier, arguing that Congress could subpoena it.
Trump pivoted to complaining about a “dossier” produced by Democrats. “Everything’s fake with that administration,” Trump said, presumably referring to the Obama administration and the so-called Steele dossier, a controversial compilation of unverified gossip about Trump and Russia put together in 2016. “Everything’s fake with the Democrats; take a look at what they just found about the dossier. Everything is fake.”
In the same press gaggle, Trump complained that members of the media should focus more on “the fact that Larry Summers — from Harvard — Bill Clinton,” and others were close friends with Epstein during his time as a staple in the New York City social scene. “I had nothing to do with the guy,” Trump added.
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Trump, of course, knew Epstein well. Besides reportedly writing a birthday card to Epstein, Trump was regularly photographed with him and his socialite partner, convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell.
“I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy,” Trump infamously said 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.”
According to a Thursday report from The New York Times, Epstein’s birthday card wasn’t the only time Trump memorialized his admiration for Epstein in writing.
“Jeff — You are the greatest!” Trump wrote in a note inscribed in a copy of his book Trump: The Art of the Comeback.
Perhaps someone else signed this book, too.
From Rolling Stone US
