Donald Trump apparently isn’t the only president that sent a birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein. “The biggest name in the album” was Bill Clinton, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. The ex-president’s letter appeared alongside nearly 50 others, including other prominent celebrities and executives.
Last week, the Journal reported that Mr Trump had authored a “bawdy” letter to Epstein, who died in jail in 2019 after he was arrested on federal sex-trafficking charges. The letter was included in an album Epstein’s former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell compiled on the occasion of his 50th birthday in 2003. Mr Trump has sued Rupert Murdoch, two Wall Street Journal newspaper reporters and the newspaper’s publisher, Dow Jones, for libel and slander over the reporting.
In Thursday’s article, the Wall Street Journal provided additional details on the album, including names of some of the nearly 50 people who wrote to Epstein. They reportedly include billionaire investor Leon Black, fashion designer Vera Wang, billionaire media owner Mortimer Zuckerman, billionaire former Victoria’s Secret owner Les Wexner, attorney Alan Dershowitz, model scout Jean-Luc Brunel and billionaire former Microsoft executive Nathan Myhrvold.
It also includes the British ambassador to the United States and Labour Party politician Peter Mandelson in a section titled “friends”. Epstein’s former co-workers, Alan “Ace” Greenberg and James “Jimmy” Cayne, who he worked with at the investment firm Bear Stearns in the 1970s, also sent letters.
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The New York Times confirmed the Wall Street Journal’s reporting on Thursday evening.
“The professionally bound birthday book had multiple volumes and included a table of contents,” the Journal reported.
According to the newspaper, Mr Clinton’s note to Epstein read: “It’s reassuring isn’t it, to have lasted as long, across all the years of learning and knowing, adventures and [illegible word], and also to have your childlike curiosity, the drive to make a difference and the solace of friends.”
A Clinton spokesperson declined to comment to the Journal, instead referring the paper to a previous statement from the ex-president, saying he had cut ties with Epstein more than a decade before his arrest and was not aware of Epstein’s crimes.
Mr Trump’s letter to Epstein was far from the only note that was sexual in nature, according to documents the Journal reviewed.
It describes a poem signed by Mr Black that read “Blonde, Red or Brunette, spread out geographically / With this net of fish, Jeff’s now ‘The Old Man and The Sea’”, and a note from Mr Wexner that included “a line drawing of what appeared to be a woman’s breasts”. Spokespersons for Mr Black and Mr Wexner declined the Journal’s request for comment.
A letter from Ms Wang suggested Epstein star on The Bachelor. Ms Wang did not respond to the Journal’s requests for comment.
And a note from Mr Myhrvold promised photographs from a recent trip to Africa: “They seemed more appropriate than anything I could put in words.” The images included “a monkey screaming, lions and zebras mating, and a zebra with its penis visible”, the Journal reported.
A spokesperson for Mr Myhrvold told the Journal the former Microsoft executive did not recall the submission, only knew Epstein as a donor to scientific research, and that he “regularly shares photos of and writes about animal behaviour”.
The letter from Mr Mandelson “included photos of whiskey and a tropical island”, the Journal reported. Mr Mandelson referred to Epstein as “my best pal” in the note. A spokesperson for Mr Mandelson declined to comment to the Journal.
As for the relationship between Mr Trump and Epstein, the Times found that at least once before, Mr Trump had written Epstein an admiring note.
“To Jeff — You are the greatest!” reads an inscription in a copy of Mr Trump’s book Trump: the Art of the Comeback, which belonged to Epstein.
The message, reviewed by the Times, is signed “Donald” and dated “Oct 97” – the month the book came out.
The Times also reviewed a previously undisclosed photo of Mr Trump and Epstein with the singer James Brown. It is not clear where the photo was taken. Brown frequently performed in Atlantic City, New Jersey, where Mr Trump owned the Taj Mahal casino. – Guardian
