President Trump’s name appeared on a contributor list for a book celebrating the 50th birthday of the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, evidence that he participated in the collection even as he denied that he signed a sexually suggestive note and drawing.
Mr. Trump’s name is listed among dozens of Mr. Epstein’s acquaintances who were asked to contribute birthday messages for the leather-bound book in 2003. The list, reviewed by The New York Times, includes well-known Epstein associates like
Leslie H. Wexner
, then the owner of Victoria’s Secret and other retailers;
Alan C. Greenberg
, who ran the doomed Wall Street firm Bear Stearns; and the physicist
Murray Gell-Mann
. Mr. Greenberg and Mr. Gell-Mann both have since died.
The Times also reviewed an introductory letter to the book, which was handwritten by Ghislaine Maxwell, Mr. Epstein’s longtime associate who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for conspiring to sexually traffic minors.
It is no secret that Mr. Trump and Mr. Epstein were friendly in the 1990s and early 2000s, before Mr. Epstein was convicted of sex crimes in 2008. But facing intense criticism over his administration’s refusal to release files related to government investigations of Mr. Epstein, Mr. Trump recently has sought to play down the extent of their relationship.
The president
sued The Wall Street Journal
for defamation after it reported on July 17 that he had
signed the note and drawing in the book,
a leather-bound album compiled by Ms. Maxwell to mark Mr. Epstein’s milestone birthday. The Journal described the drawing as the outline of a naked woman with Mr. Trump’s signature below her waist, suggesting pubic hair. It quoted an imagined conversation between Mr. Trump and Mr. Epstein that concluded with Mr. Trump saying: “May every day be another wonderful secret.”
Shortly after The Journal published its article, Mr. Trump shot back on his social media network, Truth Social, writing, “The supposed letter they printed by President Trump to Epstein was a FAKE.”
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