The House Oversight Committee has received the first documents from the estate of the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, including the so-called “birthday book“—an alleged collection of letters gifted to Epstein for his 50th birthday, which contained a message with the name of President Donald Trump.
Democrats on the committee posted a picture on X of the page with a name also shared by Trump, CNN writes.
Trump has repeatedly denied writing the letter and sued the Wall Street Journal, which first reported on it, for libel.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications Taylor Budowich said on X that “that is not Trump’s signature,” in response to the picture posted by Democrats, along with several images of the president’s signature.
The committee has been investigating the Epstein case and has judicially requested the documents held by the estate.
The investigation comes amid a bipartisan effort for greater transparency regarding the case and the release of more information.
Republicans and Democrats on the committee said they plan to release additional documents after they take the time to review what the estate has handed over. It is not clear when this will be.
Robert Garcia, the leading Democrat on the panel, said: “It’s time for the president to tell us the truth about what he knew and to release all of Epstein’s files.”
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Redactions and Document Handover
An assistant for the House Oversight Committee said that, in addition to the “birthday book,” the estate handed over “Epstein’s will from just before August 8, 2019; a non-prosecution agreement from September 24, 2007, between the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida and Epstein; entries from Epstein’s address/contact books from January 1, 1990, to August 10, 2019; and information on Epstein’s known bank accounts.”
Lawyer Daniel H. Weiner, a representative of the estate, confirmed to CNN that the first part of the documents was handed over to the panel and said that “the co-executors will continue to continuously produce documents in response to the Committee’s subpoena.”
Lawyers representing the estate noted in a letter obtained by CNN along with the documentation that there are certain redactions in the book, which was allegedly compiled by Epstein’s associate Ghislaine Maxwell and consists of three volumes.
“Please note that, out of an abundance of caution, we have redacted the names and faces of women and minors appearing in the book (other than Maxwell, public figures, and family or school photographs) to ensure that no potential victim can be publicly identified,” Weiner and attorney Daniel Ruzumna wrote.
“We have also redacted photographs that reveal any nudity,” added the co-counsel for the co-executors of the Epstein estate.
Committee members and their staff will have the opportunity to review unredacted versions of the book and other documents, as CNN previously reported.
In response to the committee’s request in the subpoena for a “potential client list involved in sex, sexual acts, or human trafficking for the purpose of sexual activity facilitated by Jeffrey Epstein,” the lawyers for the Epstein estate said that they are “unaware of the existence” of such a list.
As CNN previously reported, a bipartisan group is expected to travel to New York later this week to meet with lawyers representing the estate and review unredacted documents related to the investigation.
The committee had previously released tens of thousands of pages of documents from Epstein’s files that were handed over to the panel by the Department of Justice.
Democrats on the panel, however, criticized those documents, saying they contained little new information, i.e., that most of it was already known.
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Source:: N1, Foto: AP Photo / Thomas Krych