Politicians, businessmen, academics, showbusiness stars… Jeffrey Epstein loved collecting prominent men as friends and revelling in their approval.
So when it came to his 50th birthday in 2003, his long-time friend and sidekick Ghislaine Maxwell knew that nothing would please him more as a present than a tribute to these connections – to remind the multi-millionaire son of a park groundsman from working-class Coney Island just how far he’d come.
Maxwell, an Oxford-educated socialite, asked dozens of Epstein’s friends and associates to contribute letters and notes about him to go into a leather-bound album.
And they were only too happy to oblige. This, after all, was still three years before his arrest for sexually abusing underage girls in his Palm Beach mansion and the truth about his sordid criminality was yet to emerge.
This book, whose existence has previously never been disclosed – even though it is reportedly in the hands of the US Department of Justice – has now been seen by the Wall Street Journal.
And according to the newspaper, it contains one particular entry that has sent shockwaves across the US and prompted furious threats of a lawsuit from the Oval Office. A letter bearing Donald Trump‘s name was included in the tome. Like others, it was ‘bawdy’, the Journal said.
This letter, which the newspaper did not publish but only described, was said to contain ‘several lines of typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman, which appears to be hand-drawn with a heavy marker’.
According to the WSJ: ‘A pair of small arcs denotes the woman’s breasts, and the future president’s signature is a squiggly “Donald” below her waist, mimicking pubic hair.’
President Donald Trump (right) has been accused of sending Jeffrey Epstein (left) a ‘bawdy’ letter containing ‘several lines of typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman, which appears to be hand-drawn with a heavy marker’
Ghislaine Maxwell (above) had asked dozens of Epstein’s friends and associates to contribute letters and notes about him to go into a leather-bound album for his 50th birthday
Pressure has ramped up in recent weeks calling for the release of the so-called ‘Epstein files’ (Pictured: people holding up signs in Texas on July 17)
The letter – which ends ‘Happy Birthday – and may every day be another wonderful secret’ – is an imaginary conversation between Trump and Epstein. It’s a strange, very cryptic exchange which, given the storm it’s caused, is worth reporting in full
It begins: ‘Voice Over: There must be more to life than having everything.
Donald: Yes, there is, but I won’t tell you what it is.
Jeffrey: Nor will I, since I also know what it is.
Donald: We have certain things in common, Jeffrey.
Jeffrey: Yes, we do, come to think of it.
Donald: Enigmas never age, have you noticed that?
Jeffrey: As a matter of fact, it was clear to me the last time I saw you.
Donald: A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy Birthday – and may every day be another wonderful secret.’
Trump has denied writing the birthday letter or drawing the picture and has said he will sue the Journal for ignoring his demands not to publish the story, which he described as ‘false, malicious, and defamatory‘.
He told the newspaper: ‘This is not me. This is a fake thing. It’s a fake Wall Street Journal story.
‘I never wrote a picture in my life. I don’t draw pictures of women. It’s not my language. It’s not my words.’
Yesterday, the President upped the ante in characteristic style, stating on social media that he planned to sue Rupert Murdoch, owner of the Journal.
Yesterday, the President (right) upped the ante in characteristic style, stating on social media that he planned to sue Rupert Murdoch (left), owner of the Wall Street Journal
‘I look forward to getting Rupert Murdoch to testify in my lawsuit against him and his “pile of garbage” newspaper,’ Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. ‘That will be an interesting experience!!!’
The President’s claim that he doesn’t draw was disputed yesterday by those who supplied sketches he’d done of skyscrapers and recalled him writing of his ‘new talent’ of drawing in his 2008 book, How I Turned My Biggest Challenges Into Success.
He must be hoping that the scepticism ends there.
Meanwhile, the lewd birthday greeting and the suggestion that the two men shared a ‘secret’, couldn’t have surfaced at a worse moment for the US President, who has spent recent days fighting off accusations from his own supporters that his government is involved in a huge cover-up over the Epstein scandal.
Trump has called them ‘stupid’ and accused them of being dupes of a Democrat-spun ‘hoax’ to undermine him.
But he and some of his cronies – including, ironically, two who are now running the FBI – have only themselves to blame for this MAGA backlash as they have themselves long encouraged speculation about a conspiracy to protect the identities of powerful men who were supplied with girls by Epstein.
Trump pledged in his 2024 election campaign to declassify Epstein files, including a much-anticipated ‘list’ of clients of the financier’s sex-trafficking ring.
However, the Trump administration has now claimed that no such evidence exists.
‘I look forward to getting Rupert Murdoch to testify in my lawsuit against him and his “pile of garbage” newspaper,’ Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform (Picture: Murdoch embracing Trump in 2017)
Trump (above) pledged in his 2024 election campaign to declassify the Epstein files, including a much-anticipated ‘list’ of clients of the financier’s sex-trafficking ring
Trump has long attempted to play down the extent of his association with Epstein, who died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting a sex-trafficking trial (Pictured: Trump and Epstein together in the early 2000s)
The Department of Justice and FBI released a joint review on Thursday concluding that Epstein had ‘no incriminating client list’ that could implicate high-profile associates.
Although the Wall Street Journal reported that it was unclear whether his 50th birthday album was among the Epstein evidence recently reviewed by the Justice Department and FBI, some will inevitably be speculating that if anyone’s been covering up over Epstein, it’s the current President.
Trump has now backtracked and said he had asked Pam Bondi, his attorney-general, to release the grand jury testimony on Epstein.
Whatever this might disclose, the alleged birthday note has shifted the focus back on the Trump-Epstein relationship little more than a month after Elon Musk astonishingly claimed that his former close friend and ally was ‘in the Epstein files’, stating that was ‘the real reason they have not been made public‘.
Trump has long attempted to play down the extent of his association with Epstein, who died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting a sex-trafficking trial.
However, it’s no secret they were friends when they moved in the same moneyed social circles in Palm Beach, Florida, from the late 1980s until 2004 (just a year after the birthday greetings message) when they reportedly fell out over a property they both wanted to buy.
They attended numerous parties together and it’s claimed that in 1992, Trump arranged for a ‘calendar girl’ competition for ‘VIP guests’ to be held at his Palm Beach home, Mar-a-Lago, where he and Epstein were the only two men watching the 28 glamorous contestants.
Trump’s name appeared seven times in the passenger logs of Epstein’s private jets. In fact, Epstein was recorded boasting to biographer Michael Wolff that the first time Trump slept with his future wife Melania ‘was on my plane’.
Trump has said he had asked Pam Bondi (right), his attorney-general, to release the grand jury testimony on Epstein
Wolff also claimed that Trump and Epstein challenged each other as to who could be the first to sleep with Princess Diana.
Last month, the author said he’d seen photos of Trump and Epstein in the company of topless girls.
It’s a matter of record that Trump was sufficiently acquainted with Epstein to know about his preference for ‘younger’ women. In 2002, he was quoted in a magazine article about the mysterious financier as saying: ‘I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy.
‘He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.’
Nowadays, Trump remembers Epstein as a ‘creep’ of whom ‘I wasn’t a fan’, but he’s hardly the only one who has spent the years since Epstein’s death doing his level best to distance himself from the paedophile predator.
Who else might be embarrassed by the full contents of Epstein’s 50th birthday album being made public? Apart from mentioning an unnamed but now deceased Harvard University economist, the Wall Street Journal names only two others who submitted letters: billionaire fashion retailer Les Wexner and lawyer Alan Dershowitz. Both have been connected to Epstein for years.
Wexner, the former chief executive of lingerie company Victoria’s Secret, hired Epstein to manage his money for 20 years until 2007. They had a close but puzzling relationship in which Epstein obtained his mansion home in New York, a private plane and a property in Ohio – altogether worth $100 million – from Wexner.
Wexner has since claimed he ‘severed all ties with Epstein in 2007 and never spoke with him again’. However, according to the Journal, just four years earlier, Wexner wrote a short birthday message to Epstein: ‘I wanted to get you what you want… so here it is…’ After the text was a line drawing of what appeared to be a woman’s breasts. Wexner declined to comment to the newspaper.
Biographer Michael Wolff claims that Trump and Epstein challenged each other as to who could be the first to sleep with Princess Diana (above)
The Wall Street Journal named only two others who submitted letters to Epstein: billionaire fashion retailer Les Wexner (left) and lawyer Alan Dershowitz (right)
Dershowitz, a celebrated Harvard legal expert, was one of Epstein’s highly paid defence lawyers and was also part of the team that defended Trump from 2020 impeachment charges. He was involved in a long-running legal battle with Virginia Giuffre, an accuser of both Epstein and Prince Andrew, over allegations he engaged in sexual misconduct. Ms Giuffre later said she had misidentified the lawyer.
Dershowitz’s contribution to the birthday album was a mock-up page of a magazine titled ‘Vanity Unfair’ containing headlines such as ‘Who was Jack the Ripper? Was it Jeffrey Epstein?’. Dershowitz ‘joked that he had convinced the magazine to change the focus of an article from Epstein to Bill Clinton’, the Journal said. He told the newspaper: ‘It’s been a long time and I don’t recall the content of what I may have written.’
Other contributors to the birthday album sent poems, photos and ‘greetings’, and the senders included ‘businesspeople, academics, Epstein’s former girlfriends and childhood pals’, it’s claimed.
Given that many of Epstein’s friends – including Prince Andrew – continued to associate with him even after he was convicted of procuring a child for prostitution in 2009, the possibilities of who might have sent birthday greetings before he was ever engulfed in scandal are almost endless.
Many of the women who accused Epstein of abusing them have since testified how he used the respectability of many of his contacts to lure them into his web.
The most famous among his friends included Bill Clinton, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, filmmaker Woody Allen and music superstar Michael Jackson. Joanna Sjoberg, one of Prince Andrew’s accusers, testified that Epstein had told her Clinton ‘likes them young, referring to girls’.
Many of the women who accused Epstein of abusing them have since testified how he used the respectability of many of his contacts to lure them into his web
However, Epstein – a former maths teacher who insiders say considered himself an intellectual – didn’t just court celebrities but also scientists and academics whose research he often financed.
‘As some collect butterflies, he collects beautiful minds,’ gushed a US magazine profile of Epstein in 2002.
He even knew Professor Stephen Hawking, the illustrious British physicist, who was almost completely paralysed for more than 40 years by motor neurone disease.
Prof Hawking died in 2018 but others who had far closer associations with Epstein are very much still alive.
When sweet-talking Ghislaine Maxwell came looking for gushing tributes to dear Jeffrey at the height of his power and influence in 2003, who could possibly have refused?
Donald Trump cannot be the only one now anxiously hoping that curious Americans will move on again from the Epstein scandal.
