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Published 09:34 25 Jul 2026 GMT
When a group of journalists was awarded at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner for their reporting on the President’s connection to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, Donald Trump’s reaction was comical.
The Wall Street Journal journalists received the Katharine Graham Award for Courage and Accountability for their reporting on a 2003 birthday card written by Trump for Epstein's 50th birthday.
In the card, which Trump is adamant is fake, the president drew a drawing of a naked woman and included it in a birthday album for Epstein made by Ghislaine Maxwell, his accomplice and convicted sex trafficker.
As the reporters were awarded during the dinner, to every other guest’s surprise, Trump smiled and laughed.
At one point, he even appeared to mouth, "I don't know," while throwing his hands in the air in what looked like an attempt to make a joke about the situation.
The president also later shook hands with each of the reporters who worked on the investigation and congratulated them on their achievement.
During the dinner, Trump even remarked: "This has not been an easy evening, all those awards."
At some point in the evening, he questioned his role in the evening’s events by asking, "Do I have a say?"
The Journal's investigation, published in July 2025, drew more attention to Trump's undeniably close past relationship with Epstein and prompted the release of not-damaging-enough records related to the disgraced financier.
Later, the Trump administration released documents connected to the Epstein case, which included the birthday card at the centre of the Journal's report.
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Trump responded by filing a $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the newspaper.
The case was dismissed in April by US District Judge Darrin Gayles, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama.
While the judge did not rule on whether the letter was authentic, he dismissed the lawsuit after finding that Trump had failed to prove that the Journal had acted with "actual malice" when publishing the report.
Trump, who continues to argue that the card is not real, filed a fresh lawsuit in May that remains ongoing.
The appearance at the dinner came as the president continues to face questions over the Epstein documents and his past association with the financier.
The Journal reporters' award showed that the controversy surrounding Trump’s relationship with Epstein was an important part of the evening traditionally centred on the relationship between the White House and the news media.
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Published 14:06 23 Jul 2025 GMT
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Published 12:21 13 Nov 2025 GMT
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Donald Trump has responded after new photos of him and Jeffrey Epstein surfaced amid a wave of backlash over how he has handled recent developments.
CNN’s investigative unit, KFILE, published several black-and-white photos capturing Epstein attending Trump’s 1993 wedding to Marla Maples at Manhattan’s Plaza Hotel - more than three decades ago.
One photo showed Epstein at the reception, while another, taken by artist Dafydd Jones, shows Trump and Epstein side by side at the grand opening of the Harley Davidson Cafe the same year, with Trump’s two children in view.
Jones told CNN: “I must have recognized him going in [to the event],” referring to the wedding reception photo.
These images predate the first sex‑trafficking allegations against Epstein by more than a decade.
CNN further revealed Epstein and Trump laughing together at the 1999 Victoria’s Secret fashion show and attending a Mar‑a‑Lago charity event alongside Epstein’s girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, and Prince Andrew.
When pressed about these revelations, Trump called the story “fake news” and, after repeatedly dismissing the coverage, exclaimed: “You've got to be kidding me,” then hung up the phone, according to CNN’s report.
The photos emerged shortly after the Wall Street Journal claimed that Trump allegedly sent Epstein a suggestive birthday card in 2003.
The card, featuring an outline of a naked woman with Trump’s signature below the waist, reportedly read: “Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.”
Trump dismissed the card as “fake” and promptly filed a defamation lawsuit against the Journal and media mogul Rupert Murdoch for $10 billion.
In response, Trump has called on Florida’s attorney general, Pam Bondi, to release “any and all” grand‑jury documents from the Epstein investigation - though a Department of Justice memo this month stated it would not reveal more details and confirmed it lacks an “incriminating” list of clients.
White House Communications Director Steven Cheung defended Trump, arguing to CNN that the new photos are simply “out‑of‑context frame grabs of innocuous videos and pictures of widely attended events to disgustingly infer something nefarious.
"The fact is that the President kicked him out of his club for being a creep. This is nothing more than a continuation of the fake news stories concocted by the Democrats and the liberal media.”
Adding to the turbulence, artist Maria Farmer - who first accused Epstein and Maxwell of sexual assault nearly three decades ago - has recounted a shocking incident allegedly involving Trump, detailed in The New York Times.
She claims that in 1995 she was summoned to Epstein’s Manhattan office while wearing running shorts, only to find Trump in a suit, hovering and allegedly staring at her bare legs until Epstein intervened.
According to Farmer, Epstein said: “No, no. She’s not here for you.” The two men then exited the room, and she claimed she heard Trump remark that “he thought she was 16 years old,” per CNN.
Farmer added she “had no further alarming interactions with him and never saw him engage in inappropriate conduct with other girls or women.”
She first reported the incident to law enforcement in 1996 and again in 2006, and told The Times she has “long wondered” how those complaints were handled.
The White House, however, has strongly denied her claims.
Published 09:08 09 Sep 2025 GMT
A controversial “birthday book” once belonging to Jeffrey Epstein has been made public, including a letter that Donald Trump allegedly wrote.
The book, professionally bound and created in 2003 for Epstein’s 50th birthday by Ghislaine Maxwell, contains notes from a range of high-profile figures, per BBC News.
Alongside submissions from former President Bill Clinton, billionaire Leon Black, and defense attorney Alan Dershowitz, is an alleged “bawdy” letter from Trump featuring a hand-drawn nude figure and his reported signature.
Lawyers for Epstein’s estate turned the book over to the House Oversight Committee after being subpoenaed last month.
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Along with the scrapbook — titled The First Fifty Years — lawmakers also received Epstein’s will, nearly 30 years of entries in his personal address book, and a 2007 non-prosecution agreement from federal prosecutors.
Before the Oversight Committee officially published the documents, House Democrats released an image of the alleged Trump letter online.
“President Trump called the Epstein investigation a hoax and claimed that his birthday note didn’t exist. Now we know that Donald Trump was lying and is doing everything he can to cover up the truth,” Oversight ranking member Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) said on Monday.
“Enough of the games and lies, release the full files now.”
The Oversight Democrats’ social media account added: “HERE IT IS: We got Trump’s birthday note to Jeffrey Epstein that the President said doesn’t exist. Trump talks about a ‘wonderful secret’ the two of them shared. What is he hiding? Release the files!”
The note, reportedly sent to Epstein in 2003, contains several phrases that Democrats say contradict Trump’s public denials, per the Independent.
“Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret,” the message reads. It also features an imagined exchange between Trump and Epstein, in which the president allegedly wrote that “enigmas never age” and “we have certain things in common.”
The card includes a sketch of a nude woman, with Trump’s signature appearing to mimic pubic hair.
The White House immediately rejected the authenticity of the note.
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote: “The latest piece published by the Wall Street Journal PROVES this entire ‘Birthday Card’ story is false. As I have said all along, it’s very clear President Trump did not draw this picture, and he did not sign it.
"President Trump’s legal team will continue to aggressively pursue litigation ... This is FAKE NEWS to perpetuate the Democrat Epstein Hoax!”
Deputy Chief of Staff Taylor Budowich echoed that on social media: “Time for @newscorp to open that checkbook, it’s not his signature. DEFAMATION!”
The president has denied writing the letter altogether, calling it a “fake thing.”
In July, he filed a $10 billion defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal, its reporters, publisher Dow Jones, and News Corp owner Rupert Murdoch.
“No authentic letter or drawing exists,” the complaint states, adding that the outlet “chose to deliberately defame President Trump.”
Vice President JD Vance also dismissed the controversy, calling it a “fake scandal.”
He wrote: “The Democrats don't care about Epstein. They don’t even care about his victims. That's why they were silent about it for years. The only thing they care about is concocting another fake scandal like Russiagate to smear President Trump with lies. No one is falling for this BS.”
While Trump’s team insists the signature is fraudulent, critics have pointed to similar writing samples.
Contemporary authenticated letters — such as one Trump sent to radio host Larry King in 1999 and another to Hillary Clinton in 2000 — show nearly identical signatures to the one in the alleged birthday card.
Wall Street Journal reporter Joe Palazzolo even compared Trump’s past signatures to the one in the Epstein note, highlighting the similarities after being named in the president’s lawsuit.
A spokesperson for Dow Jones defended the reporting: “We have full confidence in the rigor and accuracy of our reporting.”
Newly released emails linked to the late financier Jeffrey Epstein have unearthed several unsettling references to U.S. President Donald Trump, sparking renewed scrutiny over their past association.
The 20,000 pages of emails and internal documents, turned over to the House Oversight Committee this week, shed light on Epstein’s communications with socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, journalist Michael Wolff, and others.
Among them are three revelations that have caught investigators’ attention, and could reignite questions about the nature of Trump’s relationship with the disgraced billionaire.
In one explosive message from January 2019, Epstein wrote to author Michael Wolff, appearing to suggest Trump had prior knowledge of his dealings. "Of course he knew about the girls," Epstein allegedly wrote. "As he asked Ghislaine to stop."
Credit: Patrick McMullan / Getty Images.
Another email to Maxwell from April 2011 referred to Trump cryptically as "the dog that hasn’t barked". Epstein told her: "I want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is Trump."
The comments, unearthed as part of the congressional probe into Epstein’s activities, are now being examined for possible relevance to earlier criminal and civil cases, The Mirror writes.
Trump has long denied any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes, insisting the pair had a falling out years before Epstein’s death in a New York jail in 2019. On his Truth Social platform last night, Trump dismissed the revelations as “another Democrat hoax,” accusing his political rivals of trying to “deflect from their massive failures.”
In the same April 2011 exchange with Maxwell, Epstein claimed that Trump had spent "hours at my house" with an unnamed victim, though he noted the alleged encounter had “never once been mentioned” in any coverage of the case.
Maxwell reportedly replied: “I have been thinking about that.”
The White House later issued a statement clarifying that the unnamed person was Virginia Giuffre, who has repeatedly stated that Trump “was not involved in any wrongdoing whatsoever.”
Still, the suggestion that Trump was a frequent guest at Epstein’s residence (and that his visits were discussed privately between Epstein and Maxwell) is likely to intensify questions about what really went on during their time in the same social circles.
Another revealing email chain released by lawmakers shows journalist Michael Wolff writing to Epstein to say he was interviewing Trump that afternoon. “Anything you think I should ask?” Wolff inquired.
Epstein replied: “Do you want to be provocative?” before listing several tongue-in-cheek suggestions, including “trump shuttle” (a reference to Trump’s failed airline) and “Hawaiian Tropic contests,” a nod to the beauty pageants Trump was known to organize and judge during the 1990s and 2000s.
Trump and Epstein have been photographed together multiple times. Credit: Davidoff Studios/Getty Images.
The exchange has reignited discussions around Trump’s history with beauty contests and his appearances alongside Epstein at social events involving young women.
The release of the Epstein archive marks the most extensive public disclosure yet of the financier’s correspondence. Lawmakers say it could take months to sift through the full collection (which spans from 2001 to 2019) and determine which communications have evidentiary value.
Trump has not been accused of any criminal conduct in relation to Epstein’s crimes. But the resurfacing of these private remarks may prove politically damaging as scrutiny over his past associations intensifies.
Published 16:24 12 Nov 2025 GMT
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has responded to the release of emails showing a troubling connection between former President Donald Trump and the late financier Jeffrey Epstein.
The emails, which were obtained by House Democrats, include a message from Epstein to author Michael Wolff in April 2019, where Epstein allegedly told Wolff that Trump “knew about the girls.”
This cryptic statement has raised concerns and questions about what Epstein might have been referring to regarding Trump's involvement with his criminal activities. However, the exact meaning of this phrase remains unclear.
In addition to this email, another message from Epstein to Ghislaine Maxwell in 2011 discusses Trump in a somewhat ominous light. Epstein writes, "I want you to realize that the dog that hasn’t barked is trump," referring to the former president in a manner that suggests he was aware of much more than he let on.
Epstein also mentioned that a victim, whose identity was redacted, had "spent hours at my house with" Trump. This statement raises further suspicions about the nature of their relationship and Trump’s awareness of Epstein's actions.
In response to these revelations, Trump has consistently denied any knowledge of Epstein’s illegal activities.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt issued a statement (via Reuters) saying the Democrats selectively leaked these emails to create a false narrative about Trump. She pointed to Virginia Giuffre, a prominent Epstein victim, who has publicly stated that Trump was never involved in any wrongdoing and described him as “couldn’t have been friendlier” during their interactions.
Leavitt further highlighted that Trump had expelled Epstein from his Mar-a-Lago club years ago for allegedly mistreating female employees, including Giuffre.
Despite these denials, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee are pressing for more transparency regarding the documents obtained from Epstein’s estate. Rep. Robert Garcia, a California Democrat, suggested that the newly released emails raise serious concerns about the depth of Trump’s involvement with Epstein.
The committee is calling for the full release of Epstein's files to the public, demanding further investigation into the relationship between Trump and Epstein.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt's statement in full:
“The Democrats selectively leaked emails to the liberal media to create a fake narrative to smear President Trump.
"The ‘unnamed victim’ referenced in these emails is the late Virginia Giuffre, who repeatedly said President Trump was not involved in any wrongdoing whatsoever and 'couldn’t have been friendlier' to her in their limited interactions.
"The fact remains that President Trump kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his club decades ago for being a creep to his female employees, including Giuffre.
"These stories are nothing more than bad-faith efforts to distract from President Trump’s historic accomplishments, and any American with common sense sees right through this hoax and clear distraction from the government opening back up again.”
While Trump has faced repeated scrutiny over his past connection to Epstein, he has not been charged with any crimes related to Epstein’s trafficking activities. Epstein himself was found dead in a Manhattan jail in August 2019, following his arrest on federal charges related to child sex trafficking. His accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, was convicted and is serving a 20-year sentence for her role in helping Epstein procure underage girls for abuse.
As the investigation into Epstein’s network continues, these new email revelations could lead to further inquiries into Trump’s ties with Epstein, despite the president’s assertions that he severed ties with the financier years ago.
Published 10:27 10 Sep 2025 GMT
A handwriting expert has shared their belief that the signature on a controversial birthday card to convicted billionaire Jeffrey Epstein belongs to President Donald Trump.
As previously reported, it was claimed that the 79-year-old sent a disturbing letter to the disgraced financier in 2003, which read: “Happy Birthday - and may every day be another wonderful secret."
The message, which included a sketch of a nude woman and ended with Trump’s signature, also features an imagined exchange between the two men, in which the president allegedly wrote that “enigmas never age” and “we have certain things in common".
Graphologist Emma Bache closely analyzed the signature and told Sky News she is "absolutely" certain it is Trump's.
"It is very much the signature he had in the 2000s. I can absolutely say it is Donald Trump's," she claimed.
Bache pointed to distinctive features of the signature, such as the unique formation of the 'o' in "Donald" and added: "He also has a very long horizontal stroke at the end of his name - which funnily enough is saying to people 'keep away' - and it's absolutely identical in pressure, in length and formation of about every single stroke (to his current official signature)."
The birthday message was part of a collection of documents released to Congress after being handed over by Epstein's estate.
According to The Guardian, these materials were compiled in a book titled The First Fifty Years by Ghislaine Maxwell for Epstein’s 50th birthday in 2003. It included notes from a range of high-profile figures, including former President Bill Clinton, Lord Mandelson, billionaire Leon Black, and defense attorney Alan Dershowitz.
However, the Trump note, featuring a hand-drawn nude figure, has attracted the most attention.
Despite the expert's analysis, the White House has vigorously denied that the US leader wrote the message.
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt repeated the administration's stance, stating, "President Trump did not draw this picture, and he did not sign it."
The president himself has dismissed the letter as a "fake thing" and filed a defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal for reporting on the alleged card. His legal team has consistently argued that the letter is a hoax, per BBC News.
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Democratic lawmakers have seized on the controversy surrounding the birthday message, accusing the president of lying about his ties to Epstein.
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) criticized Trump, saying: "President Trump called the Epstein investigation a hoax and claimed that his birthday note didn’t exist. Now we know that Donald Trump was lying and is doing everything he can to cover up the truth," per The Independent.
As the legal and political battle rages on between the president and the publication that released the alleged card, Bache’s analysis remains firm: "The idea that it could be forged would be almost impossible. It's a very confident, very speedy signature, and when you forge something, you do it more slowly."
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