Congressional Republicans say they don’t believe that the materials from the estate of the late Jeffrey Epstein demonstrate close ties between the convicted sex offender and Donald Trump — caught between the president’s furor and a base clamoring for answers around the Justice Department’s handling of the case.
The White House has continued to deny that Trump wrote a note in the so-called birthday book celebrating Epstein’s 50th birthday, which was subpoenaed by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and a released in full Monday. The image in the book, bearing what appears to be Trump’s signature, resembles the outline of a woman’s body and includes the text, “We have certain things in common, Jeffrey.”
Speaker Mike Johnson, when asked if he believed the letter was indeed written by Trump, replied, “I don’t. They say it’s not.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune similarly dodged the question: “There’s a dispute about whether that’s really his signature,” he said. “So it’s just going to be argued back-and-forth.”
House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) said Tuesday that the committee had not brought in handwriting experts to verify Trump’s signature on the letter, nor was that an important issue for his committee.
“The focus, again, is on trying to provide justice to the victims,” he told reporters.
Trump has, for years, been dogged by questions about his connections to the disgraced financier. He has insisted the two men ended their friendship long before Epstein’s subsequent arrest in 2019 on additional sex trafficking charges, and continues to call the campaign for answers in the Epstein case a “hoax.”
The White House also has been lobbying against a separate, bipartisan measure that would force a floor vote to compel the Justice Department to release materials in the Epstein case within 30 days.
At the same time, GOP leadership has championed the House Oversight probe into the Justice Department’s handling of the case, which has already resulted in some document production but not much that hasn’t already been previously disclosed.
Meredith Lee Hill and Jordain Carney contributed to this report.
