President Donald Trump declined Tuesday to comment on a birthday message he is alleged to have sent to Jeffrey Epstein that House Oversight Committee Democrats released on Monday, calling it a "dead issue."
"I don't comment on something that's a dead issue," Trump told NBC News when asked about the note. "I gave all comments to the staff. It's a dead issue."
Democrats on the U.S. House Oversight Committee, which is probing the handling of criminal investigations into the late financier, published the letter on social media after it was delivered by Epstein's estate.
The note is inserted into the sketched outline of a nude woman and was allegedly part of a book of letters from Epstein's friends, compiled by his now-imprisoned associate Ghislaine Maxwell for the financier's 50th birthday.
The White House reiterated its denial of the authenticity of the letter on Monday, with press secretary Karoline Leavitt saying, "It's very clear President Donald Trump did not draw this picture and he did not sign it … President Trump's legal team will continue to aggressively pursue litigation."
Trump, 79, sued The Wall Street Journal for $10 billion after it originally reported the existence of the letter, insisting that he had never sent it.
Epstein, a wealthy financier with high-level connections around the world, was found dead in his New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial for alleged sex trafficking of underage girls recruited to provide him with sexual massages.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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