US Congress releases Epstein ‘birthday book’ (READ IN FULL)
The House Oversight Committee has published hundreds of pages of records from the estate of Jeffrey Epstein, including the convicted sex offender’s so-called “birthday book.” Republican committee chair James Comer has accused the Democrats of selectively “cherry-picking” documents to smear US President Donald Trump.
The disclosure on Monday evening followed a subpoena issued to the Epstein estate in late August. Alongside the 238-page “birthday book,” the panel released Epstein’s will, his 2007 non-prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors in Florida, and sections of the disgraced financier’s address book.
The professionally bound book, compiled in 2003 by Epstein’s associate Ghislaine Maxwell, features contributions from dozens of acquaintances, among them former President Bill Clinton and attorney Alan Dershowitz. Some pages include lighthearted tributes, while others contain sexual jokes, staged photographs, and redacted names of women.
Republicans said the release was intended to provide transparency after Democrats publicized only the alleged Trump note earlier in the day, shaping headlines around the president and overshadowing the wider trove of documents.
The disputed page contained typewritten text inside the outline of a nude woman and appeared to be signed “Donald” below the waistline of the sketch. Trump has called the note a fabrication and is suing the Wall Street Journal and its owner Rupert Murdoch for $10 billion in a defamation case. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt repeated on Monday that the president “did not draw this picture, and he did not sign it.”
Democrats on the Oversight Committee highlighted the alleged Trump message and demanded further disclosure of Epstein-related files, accusing the president of concealing damaging information.
Comer criticized Democrats for “cherry-picking documents and politicizing information received from the Epstein Estate,” while insisting that “President Trump is not accused of any wrongdoing.”
Epstein, convicted in 2008 on state charges of soliciting prostitution, was later arrested on federal sex-trafficking charges in 2019. He died in a Manhattan jail the same year, in what authorities ruled a suicide. Maxwell was convicted in 2021 and is serving a 20-year sentence. Epstein’s long-standing ties to prominent political, business, and academic figures continue to spark bipartisan calls for transparency, although the Department of Justice has said there is no “client list” linked to his trafficking crimes.
