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- [00:06]
Khadijah Safdar
Yesterday, our colleague Khadijah Safdar broke a story about a book of letters. The book was a gift for Jeffrey Epstein, the late financier and convicted sex offender.
- [00:20]
Jessica Mendoza
I discovered that there was a birthday book that was given to Epstein for his 50th birthday, that Ghislaine Maxwell had compiled it. And it contained poems, pictures, drawings and letters from Epstein's family and friends. And among those were some powerful people. And there was like, dozens of associates in this book.
- [00:41]
Khadijah Safdar
The leather bound book of Letters was from 2003, before Epstein was first arrested in 2006. One of the letters was from now President Donald Trump.
- [00:51]
Jessica Mendoza
There was a letter in the book and it had Trump's signature on it and several lines of typewritten text. And then around that text was an outline of a naked woman. And it looked like it had been drawn, almost like with a Sharpie. And then in the midst of the text, like, there was two small arcs that showed what appeared to be like the woman's breasts. And on the bottom was Trump's signature, but just the first name, Donald.
- [01:20]
Khadijah Safdar
The future president's signature was written below the woman's waist, a squiggle mimicking pubic hair.
- [01:25]
Jessica Mendoza
The text itself was like this fictitious conversation between Donald and Jeffrey.
- [01:30]
Khadijah Safdar
What did it say?
- [01:32]
Jessica Mendoza
It started. Voiceover There must be more to life than having everything. DONALD yes, there is. But I won't tell you what it is. JEFFREY Nor will I, since I also know what it is. DONALD we have certain things in common, Jeffrey. JEFFREY yes, we do. Come to think of it. DONALD enigmas never age. Have you noticed that? JEFFREY As a matter of fact, it was clear to me the last time I saw you. DONALD A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy birthday. And may every day be another wonderful secret. It felt like it was like inside joke.
- [02:09]
Khadijah Safdar
In an interview with the Journal, Trump denied writing the letter or drawing the picture. He said, quote, this is not me. This is a fake thing. It's a fake Wall Street Journal story. Trump also told the Journal he was preparing to file a lawsuit if the paper published an article on the letter. Welcome to the Journal, our show about money, business and power. I'm Jessica mendoza. It's Friday, July 18th. Coming up on the show, Donald Trump's letter to Jeffrey Epste.
- [02:55]
N/A
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- [03:25]
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- [03:57]
Khadijah Safdar
The book of letters that Khadija reviewed was from 2003 before Epstein was first arrested in 2006.
- [04:07]
Jessica Mendoza
So the book is kind of like an album and it has poems, photos, it has greetings from business, academics, some of Epstein's former girlfriends, like childhood friends. And there were letters from people that I recognized, you know, that I've done a lot of past reporting on Epstein, and they're just known associates of his. For example, there was a letter in there from Leslie Wexner, and Epstein had worked as his money manager. There was a letter in there from Ellen Dershowitz, who was Epstein's lawyer. There was a report card from Epstein from Mark Twain Junior High School in Brooklyn. There was a note from a former assistant that included an acrostic with Epstein's name.
- [04:49]
Khadijah Safdar
An acrostic is like a puzzle, right? Like the letters sort of align to set a message or something.
- [04:54]
Jessica Mendoza
An acrostic is like when you use a word and then you use the first letter of each word to have like a sentence. So it's spelled Jeffrey. It's like Jeffrey O. Jeffrey, everyone loves you. Fun in the sun. Fun just for fun. Remember, don't forget me soon. Epstein, you rock. You are the best, right?
- [05:12]
Khadijah Safdar
And then if you line those up, it'll say Jeffrey at the beginning, right? What was the nature of the messages? How would you describe sort of overall, the tone?
- [05:25]
Jessica Mendoza
The word we used was body. I guess another word is like sophomoric is what I would describe it. Wexner's letter included a line drawing of what appeared to be like, breasts.
- [05:37]
Khadijah Safdar
Wexner, the longtime leader of Victoria's Secret, declined to comment through a spokesman. Previously, his spokesman told the Journal that the retail mogul severed all ties with Epstein in 2007 and never spoke with him again. In his letter to Epstein, attorney Alan Dershowitz included a mock up of a vanity unfair magazine cover. It featured mock headlines such as, who was Jack the Ripper? Was it Jeffrey Epstein? Dershowitz represented Epstein after his first arrest in 2006. Dershowitz said, quote, it's been a long time, and I don't recall the content of what I may have written. Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted in 2021 of helping Epstein's sex trafficking. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Maxwell didn't respond to a letter requesting an interview sent to her in prison. And why was this important? Why were you so interested in what was in those letters?
- [06:30]
Jessica Mendoza
Because I also learned that some of those pages were reviewed by the Justice Department years ago, and so I wanted to understand what they reviewed. I also have been doing a lot of Epstein reporting over the course of several years, and I've been trying to understand what his relationships were with different powerful people. And in my previous reporting, I had been reviewing schedules and calendars. So that gave me a window of insight into who was meeting with him, the frequency of meetings that were taking place after he was a convicted sex offender. So this offered another window into the relationships that Epstein had with different powerful people.
- [07:12]
Khadijah Safdar
And one of those powerful people, as we mentioned, was Trump. What do we know about what his relationship with Epstein was like at that time in 2003?
- [07:20]
Jessica Mendoza
They were associates at the time. There's been, like, a documented relationship between the two. There was, like, a New York magazine profile of Epstein where Trump quoted in there, it says, I've known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy. He's a lot of fun to be with. It even said he likes beautiful women as much as I do. And many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it. Jeffrey enjoys his social life. And then, I mean, there's been pictures released of the two of them. There's been a tape that's come out from NBC archives that show them partying together in the 1990s. So it's just important to keep in mind that the letter predates Epstein's first arrest. So it's around the time when there was a documented relationship between the two.
- [08:06]
Khadijah Safdar
Both Trump and Epstein have said that they had a falling out. Trump has said that their friendship ended before 2008, when Epstein pleaded guilty to procuring a minor for prostitution. Epstein served time in a Florida jail and registered as a sex offender. When Epstein was arrested again in 2019, Trump said he hadn't talked to Epstein for about 15 years. Trump's spokeswoman told the Wall Street Journal in 2023 that at some point Trump had banned Epstein from his Mar A Lago club. The story around Jeffrey Epstein has been going on for years at this point. Can you describe this moment in the Epstein saga?
- [08:46]
Jessica Mendoza
It's a pretty sensitive time for the president, especially with respect to his past relationship with Epstein, because there's a lot of controversy around the Justice Department documents, the so called Epstein files and who and what is in those files. And there's been a storm that's consuming the Trump administration.
- [09:05]
Khadijah Safdar
It's unclear if any of the pages from the birthday album are part of the Trump administration's recent review. DOJ officials didn't respond to requests for comment after the break. How Trump's letter fits into the broader controversy over the Epstein files.
- [09:29]
N/A
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- [09:56]
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- [10:33]
Khadijah Safdar
Our colleague Sadie German covers the Department of Justice and she's been following the ups and downs of the Epstein case. We just spoke to our colleague Khadija Safdar about her story on President Trump's letter to Jeffrey Epstein for Epstein's 50th birthday. But before this reporting was published last night, what was the state of play when it comes to the Epstein story and the Trump administration?
- [10:56]
Sadie German
Well, the Epstein story has certainly been something that's dogged the the Trump administration for a very long time. Right wing influencers, including some of Trump's most prominent supporters, have long argued that there's been a government cover up in this case and the allegation and the conspiracy theory has always been that there was a so called client list of Epstein's clients that would include the names of powerful Democrats. And so this is kind of narrative, you know, prop Trump up and allowed Trump to point the fingers at Democrats and accuse them of being part of this sex trafficking case. And Trump, at the outset of his campaign, even before he became president, said.
- [11:35]
Khadijah Safdar
That he would release these files in 2024. Trump was asked in a Fox News interview whether he would declassify the Epstein case files.
- [11:43]
Donald Trump
Yeah, yeah, I would.
- [11:45]
Khadijah Safdar
All right.
- [11:45]
Donald Trump
Yes, I would. I think that less so because, you know, you don't know. It's, you don't want to affect people's lives if it's phony stuff in there, because there's a lot of phony stuff with that whole world. But I think I would, or at least.
- [11:58]
Khadijah Safdar
And after Trump's Attorney General, Pam Bondi was confirmed in February, she took on the Epstein files.
- [12:06]
Sadie German
In February. Bondi went on Fox News and suggested that there was a so called client list, a list of Epstein's clients that was among the files on her desk that was awaiting review.
- [12:18]
Jessica Mendoza
It's sitting on my desk right now to review.
- [12:21]
Sadie German
That's been a directive by President Trump. I'm reviewing. Well, this set off the conspiracy theory world by storm, even though at this point there had been no evidence to suggest that there was a client list. But that kind of took the story to the next dimension. And then a few days later, Bondi invited right wing influencers to the White House where she gave them binders, white binders that said Epstein files Phase 1 in Big Red lettering in the front. And she promised that there was new information in here and that this was part of the files. But it quickly became clear that this was. Most of this information had already been public through various legal filings and criminal cases. And this planned release was kind of a flop.
- [13:05]
N/A
It was a bit of a nothing burger. It was like blowing open Al Capone's safe. And there was a bit of dirt and some empty bottles. Nothing we didn't already know.
- [13:15]
Sadie German
Instead of backing down, Bondi directs the FBI to start going through them again. And Director Kash Patel vows to get to the bottom of it. He vows to determine if the FBI withheld any files from her and to figure out what the reason for that was. So he assigns hundreds of FBI agents and other employees to start pouring through these documents and making redactions and preparing them for release.
- [13:44]
Khadijah Safdar
But then tonight, growing fallout over the.
- [13:47]
Sadie German
Trump administration, effectively closing the case of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
- [13:54]
Khadijah Safdar
So earlier this month, the DOJ seemed to change direction on its plan to release more documents. Can you talk about that?
- [14:01]
Sadie German
So it's a Sunday night at the end of a holiday weekend, and Axios pops this story that says that the Justice Department has backtracked on its promise to release more information that was in the Epstein files and that they had found no information suggesting there was such a client list and no information that warranted further public disclosure. It was just a brief memo, case closed, we don't have anything else for you. And this just sort of shook the sort of Trump world.
- [14:33]
Khadijah Safdar
Some of those who spoke up were Laura Ingraham at Fox News.
- [14:36]
Sadie German
It's obvious that this is a huge PR disaster for the Trump administration.
- [14:40]
Khadijah Safdar
Infowars founder Alex Jones.
- [14:42]
N/A
So now by coming in and being part of the COVID up, the Trump.
- [14:46]
Sadie German
Administration has become part of it.
- [14:49]
N/A
I mean it just, you cannot see it any other way.
- [14:53]
Khadijah Safdar
And other influencers in the MAGA world.
- [14:55]
Jessica Mendoza
I feel really betrayed and I feel really, really angry.
- [14:59]
Khadijah Safdar
Why were Trump supporters upset?
- [15:02]
Sadie German
So part of the issue was that many people who are now in Trump's government and Trump's administration had been among those who were pushing the conspiracy theories when they, before they got into government. That includes the deputy director of the FBI, Dan Bongino. And you know, so they now have to sort of tamp down this conspiracy theory that they helped fuel. So that's not helping matters much. And then these right wing influencers and conservative media figures are just absolutely incensed because this was something that was very important to them and it just confirmed their suspicions to them that there was a government cover up because of sort.
- [15:39]
Khadijah Safdar
Of the back and forth that's been happening. I think some people are confused. Is there an Epstein file?
- [15:45]
Sadie German
Well, there's certainly files and tons and tons of documents and videos and photo evidence that were gathered as part of this long running investigation into Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell. So I mean, it's accurate to say that there's a file.
- [16:05]
Khadijah Safdar
You've been covering the Department of Justice for a while now. How unprecedented, if at all, is this for the doj?
- [16:13]
Sadie German
Well, it's certainly unusual. I mean, in cases like this, particularly sensitive cases where there is victim information and sex assaults and we're dealing with minor victims, the FBI takes great pains to protect that information and to protect, you know, sources and methods of the way it investigates these types of crimes. So we don't often have any sort of promise of getting more information from a criminal case than what's already been, you know, disputed, displayed in court filings and in court. So that in and of itself is unusual, but this is just, it's sort of snowballed.
- [16:47]
Khadijah Safdar
After the Wall Street Journal published details of Trump's letter to Epstein last night, Trump took to social media to call for the release of, quote, pertinent grand jury material related to Epstein's case. That's all for today. Friday, July 18th. Additional reporting in this episode by Joe Palazzolo, Natalie Andrews and Annie Glinsky. The Journal is a co production of Spotify and the Wall Street Journal. The show's made by Kathryn Brewer, Pia Gadkari, Carlos Garcia, Rachel Humphries, Sophie Kodner, Ryan Knudson, Matt Kwong, Colin McNulty, Annie Menoff, Laura Morris, Enrique Perez de la Rosa, Sarah Platt, Allen Rodriguez Espinosa, Heather Rogers, Pierce Singhi, Jeevika Verma, Lisa Wang, Katherine Whalen, Tatiana Zemis and me, Jessica Mendoza. Our engineers are Griffin Tanner, Nathan Singapak and Peter Leonard. Our theme music is by so Wiley. Additional music this week from Katherine Anderson, Marcus Bagala, Blue Dot Sessions, Peter Leonard, Bobby Lord, Emma Munger, Nathan Singapok and Griffin Tanner. Fact checking this week by Kate Gallagher. Thanks for listening. See you Monday.