US Justice Department releases card mentioning Trump, purportedly sent from Epstein to Larry Nassar

Summary

• The US Justice Department released a card purportedly from Jeffrey Epstein to Larry Nassar containing a crude reference to President Trump.
• The card's authenticity is questionable due to inconsistencies, including the postmark and return address details, raising doubts about its origin.
• The Justice Department stated claims against Trump in the released documents are "unfounded and false," clarifying their position on the matter.

WASHINGTON - The US Justice Department released an image on Dec 23 of a card that makes a crude reference to President Donald Trump, purportedly written by convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to Larry Nassar, who is serving a life sentence for sexually abusing hundreds of girls.

Reuters could not determine whether the card is authentic. 

The postmark on its envelope is Virginia, not New York where Epstein was jailed, and indicates the envelope was processed three days after his death in August 2019. The return address on the envelope misidentifies the jail where Epstein was being held and does not include his inmate number, which the Bureau of Prisons policy manual requires be included on outgoing mail.

The card features an image of a couple holding hands across a table and says in a handwritten note that “our president also shares our love of young, nubile girls.”

It was part of some 30,000 pages of documents released to the public on Dec 23.

The White House and the Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the card. There have been no allegations in the Justice Department disclosures of Epstein’s files that Mr Trump committed any crime.

Epstein’s card also includes the message: “As you know by now, I have taken the ‘short route’ home,” a possible allusion to suicide. Epstein was found dead in his cell on Aug 10, 2019. The Justice Department has said that he killed himself.

One of Nassar’s former lawyers, Ms Shannon Smith, declined to comment.

Another former lawyer, Mr Matthew Newburg, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The government obtained the handwritten card when it was returned to the federal detention centre in New York as undeliverable after Epstein, an American financier with connections to prominent figures, had died in what authorities ruled a suicide.

Another record the government released shows the FBI requested a handwriting analysis to determine whether it was written by Epstein; the results of that assessment, if one was conducted, were not immediately available. 

The Justice Department said in a statement on X on Dec 23: “Some of these documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims made against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election. To be clear: the claims are unfounded and false.”

The statement did not detail which documents it was referring to.

The Associated Press reported in 2023 that a card had been returned to the New York jail addressed from Epstein to Nassar. It was found in the jail’s mail room after Epstein died. It was unclear if the two men had any previous relationship.

Nassar, who served as Olympic gymnasts’ team doctor for 18 years, was sentenced in 2017 to 60 years in federal prison for possessing child sex abuse material, and in 2018 received two Michigan sentences totalling up to 300 years for molesting gymnasts under his care.
REUTERS