President Donald Trump ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi on Thursday to pursue the public release of sealed grand jury testimony from Jeffrey Epstein’s sex-trafficking case, responding to a Wall Street Journal report alleging he contributed to the convicted sex offender’s birthday album.
Trump announced the directive on Truth Social, citing “the ridiculous amount of publicity given to Jeffrey Epstein.” Bondi confirmed her compliance with the president’s order in a separate social media post.
The move follows a Journal story reporting Trump allegedly contributed a “bawdy” letter featuring a naked woman’s drawing to a 2003 birthday album compiled by Ghislaine Maxwell for Epstein’s 50th birthday.
The Journal described the alleged contribution as containing “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.” The message reportedly concluded: “Happy Birthday – and may every day be another wonderful secret.”
The newspaper said the letter contained a typewritten note styled as an imaginary conversation between Trump and Epstein, beginning with “Voice Over: There must be more to life than having everything” and ending with “A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy Birthday – and may every day be another wonderful secret.”
Trump denied authorship and announced plans to sue the Journal, News Corp and Rupert Murdoch. He claimed he personally told Murdoch and Journal editor-in-chief Emma Tucker the letter was fake.
“Mr Murdoch stated that he would take care of it but obviously did not have the power to do so,” Trump wrote. “Instead they are going with a false, malicious, defamatory story anyway.”
The Journal reported Maxwell collected letters from Trump and dozens of Epstein associates, including L Brands owner Les Wexner, for the leather-bound album in 2003, three years before Epstein faced sexual misconduct investigations.
Justice Department officials examined the album during their investigation of Epstein and Maxwell. Other contributors reportedly included Epstein attorney Alan Dershowitz and Wexner, who allegedly wrote “I wanted to get you what you want … so here it is …” alongside a drawing the Journal described as “what appeared to be a woman’s breasts.”
Dershowitz told the Journal: “It’s been a long time and I don’t recall the content of what I may have written.” Wexner declined comment through a spokesman.
Previous Trump-Epstein comments
The 2003 birthday wishes preceded Trump’s 2002 New York magazine comments praising Epstein. “I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy,” Trump said. “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.”
Vice President JD Vance defended Trump on Thursday evening, calling the story “complete and utter bullshit” on social media platform X.
“Where is this letter? Would you be shocked to learn they never showed it to us before publishing it? Does anyone honestly believe this sounds like Donald Trump?” Vance wrote.
The Journal acknowledged uncertainty about how the letter with Trump’s signature was prepared but maintained its reporting accuracy.
(Source: The Guardian)
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