Sept. 8 (UPI) — The Republican-led House Oversight and Government Reform Committee received files Monday from Jeffrey Epstein‘s estate that included a decades-old “birthday book” note, which some claim was written by President Donald Trump.
The Oversight Committee said it will release redacted versions of the files — which include Epstein’s last will and testament, bank accounts, contact list and the non-prosecution agreement with the U.S. attorney’s office in South Florida — to the public “in the near future.”
Trump has denied writing a birthday note to Epstein and calls it a “fake.” The president has even filed a $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal for first reporting on the “bawdy” letter. Dow Jones, the parent company of the newspaper, said it has “full confidence in the rigor and accuracy” of its reporting.
Epstein was a wealthy financier who owned a private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands. He was a convicted sex offender and was awaiting trial on charges of federal sex trafficking of minors, when he committed suicide inside a New York City jail in 2019.
On Monday, Democratic Rep. Robert Garcia of California — who serves on the Oversight panel — urged the president to “tell us the truth.”
“The Oversight Committee has secured the infamous ‘Birthday Book’ that contains a note from President Trump that he has said does not exist,” Garcia 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. The American people are demanding answers.”
The White House said the signature in the letter does not belong to the president.
“Time for @newscorp to open that checkbook, it’s not his signature. DEFAMATION!” White House deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich wrote Monday in a post on X.
The Oversight Committee issued a subpoena last month for information from Epstein’s estate, including a copy of the alleged birthday book given to him in 2003 on his 50th birthday.
Last week, the committee released 33,295 pages of files on Epstein and his sex trafficking of minors. Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., subpoenaed the Justice Department on Aug. 5 to obtain the documents.
Committee member Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., estimated that 97% of the files had already been made public.