Bill Clinton, Trump letters to Epstein found in ‘birthday book’ curated by Ghislaine Maxwell

Calling the letter a “fake thing”, Trump denied any involvement with the letter or the drawing. “This is not me. This is a fake thing. It’s a fake Wall Street Journal story,” he said. “I never wrote a picture in my life. I don’t draw pictures of women. It’s not my language. It’s not my words.”

However, Trump is not the only “big” name found in the journal. According to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, former President of the United States, Bill Clinton, was among around five dozen people, including Donald Trump, Wall Street billionaire Leon Black, fashion designer Vera Wang and media owner Mort Zuckerman, who ended up with letters in the 2003 book.

“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,” Clinton wrote in the letter.

A spokesman for the former president has denied all claims and repeatedly stressed that Clinton had cut off ties more than a decade before Epstein was arrested in 2019 and didn’t know about Epstein’s alleged crimes.

The “birthday book” was a professionally bound book with multiple volumes, which included a table of contents listing the contributions, organised into groups. While many letter writers weren’t famous, some categories included notable individuals.

Trump and Clinton were listed under “Friends”, while the late Alan “Ace” Greenberg and the late James “Jimmy” Cayne were included under the “Business” group.

About 20 other associates, such as Black, Zuckerman, former Victoria’s Secret leader Leslie Wexner, attorney Alan Dershowitz, and the late Jean-Luc Brunel, who ran a modelling agency, were part of the “Friends” category included in the journal.

Other people were grouped under categories such as “Science”, “Brooklyn” and “Family”.

Birthday wishes

While some of the birthday messages were inoffensive, others were suggestive and included crude jokes about sex.

For instance, a letter from billionaire and former Microsoft executive Nathan Myhrvold featured pictures of animals from his recent trip to Africa. It included photos of a monkey screaming, lions and zebras mating, and a zebra with its penis visible.

The letter read: “They seemed more appropriate than anything I could put in words,” and ended with a typed “Nathan.”

A spokeswoman for Myhrvold denied any memory of sharing the images, saying that he is a wildlife photographer who “regularly shares photos of and writes about animal behaviour.”

She added that he only knew Epstein through attending TED conferences and as a donor to scientific research.
Another person categorised under the “Friends” category, Leon Black, wrote a poem with the acronym “V.F.P.C.” — which he said stood for “Vanity Fair Poster Child”, a reference to a magazine profile of Epstein that was in the works.

Two lines in the poem read:

Blonde, Red or Brunette, spread out geographically

With this net of fish, Jeff’s now ‘The Old Man and The Sea’

“Love and kisses, Leon,” he signed the poem.

A spokesman for Black, the co-founder of Apollo Global Management, declined to comment on the letter.

Black said that he first met Jeffrey Epstein around 1996 and had paid him for services related to tax and estate planning. He expressed regret over having any involvement with Epstein.

In 2021, Apollo disclosed that a legal review revealed Black had paid Epstein a total of $158 million between 2012 and 2017, including a $10 million donation to Epstein’s charity, and found no evidence Black was involved in Epstein’s criminal activities.

In a letter, fashion designer Wang jokingly suggested putting Epstein on The Bachelor, and proposed a shopping trip.

She did not respond to requests for comment, though she told The Wall Street Journal in 2023 that she regrets ever being associated with Epstein.

Another letter from Zuckerman, then owner of the New York Daily News, said that he had looked into the paper’s archives for information on Epstein and joked that Epstein was from Liechtenstein and had a wife and three children.

Zuckerman also did not respond to requests for comment.

Assembling the Album

Maxwell sought help from assistants to assemble the album, according to people familiar with the process and recipients of the invites, WSJ reported.

As the letters and images came in, they were scanned into a computer. Some of the people who assisted with the project recalled seeing the Trump and Clinton pages among the documents at the time. The letters were taken to a New York City bookbinder to create the calfskin album.

Brad Edwards, a lawyer who has represented more than 200 of Epstein’s victims, said on MSNBC Wednesday evening that he has multiple clients who remember the birthday book. “The existence of the book is an absolute fact,” Edwards said.

Jeffrey’s brother, Mark Epstein, who also wrote a note, told the Journal that he recalls Maxwell putting together the book for his brother’s birthday.

Trump and Epstein’s Ties

The controversy over Trump’s involvement in the Epstein case emerged again when Elon Musk claimed that Trump’s name is documented in the Epstein files.

In 2019, after Epstein was arrested a second time on federal sex trafficking charges, the FBI confiscated evidence from his homes in the US Virgin Islands and New York. He died in jail later that year.

Trump had asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to release “whatever she thinks is credible” regarding the deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, as he continues to face backlash over his involvement.

Bondi informed President Donald Trump in May that his name appears in Department of Justice (DOJ) records related to the Jeffrey Epstein investigation.

US Justice Department Official Meets Ghislaine Maxwell

Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year sentence for helping Epstein sexually abuse underage girls and may soon be called to testify before the US Congress.

The Justice Department’s No. 2 official met with Ghislaine Maxwell, who said the meeting is part of an ongoing effort by the department to cast itself as transparent — following fierce backlash from parts of President Donald Trump’s base over an earlier refusal to release additional records related to the Epstein investigation.

Maxwell’s family also issued a statement last week claiming she didn’t receive a fair trial. One of her lawyers, David Oscar Markus, called on President Trump to intervene, as reported by the WSJ.

(With inputs from The Wall Street Journal)