WASHINGTON- The Justice Department asked a federal court on Friday to unseal grand jury transcripts in Jeffrey Epstein’s case amid heightened public interest in the disgraced financier’s connection to President Donald Trump. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche filed a motion urging the court to release the transcripts a day after Trump directed the Justice Department […]
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DOJ asks court to unseal Epstein grand jury transcripts
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WASHINGTON- The Justice Department asked a federal court on Friday to unseal grand jury transcripts in Jeffrey Epstein’s case amid heightened public interest in the disgraced financier’s connection to President Donald Trump.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche filed a motion urging the court to release the transcripts a day after Trump directed the Justice Department to do so.
On Thursday, the President promised a lawsuit after The Wall Street Journal claimed to have seen a sexually suggestive letter that the newspaper says bore Trump’s name and was included in a 2003 album for Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th birthday. Trump denied writing the letter, calling it “false, malicious, and defamatory.”
“It’s not my language. It’s not my words,” Trump told the WSJ before the story broke.
The letter revealed by The Wall Street Journal was allegedly collected by disgraced British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell as part of a birthday album for Epstein years before the wealthy financier was first arrested in 2006 and subsequently had a falling-out with Trump. The paper claims the letter bearing Trump’s name includes text framed by the outline of what appears to be a hand-drawn naked woman and ends with, “Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret,” according to the newspaper. The outlet described the contents of the letter but did not publish a photo showing it entirely.
Maxwell was arrested in 2020 and convicted a year later on charges that she helped Epstein lure girls to be sexually abused.
Trump slammed the story in a lengthy social media post Thursday night, saying he spoke to both to the paper’s owner, Rupert Murdoch, and its top editor, Emma Tucker, and told them the letter was “fake.” Trump promised to sue the paper over the story, saying: “These are not my words, not the way I talk. Also, I don’t draw pictures.”
Vice President JD Vance said The Wall Street Journal “should be ashamed” for publishing it.
“Where is this letter? Would you be shocked to learn they never showed it to us before publishing it? Does anyone honestly believe this sounds like Donald Trump?” he wrote on X.