Congress obtains drawing for Epstein apparently signed by Trump

NEW YORK STATE DIVISION OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE SERVICES/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS

U.S. financier Jeffrey Epstein appears in a photograph taken for the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services’ sex offender registry, in March 2017, and obtained by Reuters in July 2019.

WASHINGTON >> A key congressional committee today obtained a note and sexually suggestive drawing apparently signed by President Donald Trump and included in a book for disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th birthday in 2003 — a drawing that Trump has insisted is fake.

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee said they had viewed the drawing — a figure of a naked woman with “Donald” written below her waist — and posted a photo of it on their official social media account. The drawing, in thick black ink, outlines text that quotes an imagined conversation between Trump and Epstein, with what appears to be Trump’s distinctive signature below the woman’s waist.

“The Oversight Committee has secured the infamous ‘Birthday Book’ that contains a note from President Trump that he has said does not exist,” Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the committee, said in a statement. “It’s time for the president to tell us the truth about what he knew and release all the Epstein files.”

Lawyers for Epstein’s estate provided a copy of the book, among other materials, in response to a subpoena that the Oversight Committee’s Republican chair, Rep. James R. Comer of Kentucky, issued last month, according to an aide.

Details of the drawing and poem were reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal in July. The president has vehemently denied writing the letter or drawing the figure, and has sued the Journal for defamation.

At the time, Trump wrote on social media, “The supposed letter they printed by President Trump to Epstein was a FAKE.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

© 2025 The New York Times Company

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