House Oversight Committee staff on Monday published images from a compilation of messages assembled for Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th birthday that include a handwritten note from former President Bill Clinton praising Epstein’s “childlike curiosity,” and an illustration depicting Epstein approaching young girls, according to the documents released by the committee.
The materials, which the committee said were turned over following a congressional subpoena of Epstein’s estate, were part of an album reportedly assembled by Ghislaine Maxwell in 2003. Maxwell, a longtime Epstein associate who is serving a 20-year federal prison sentence for her role in his crimes, asked friends and associates for messages, drawings and photographs for the binder, which she gave to Epstein for his birthday, the committee said.
The Wall Street Journal, which first reviewed portions of the binder, published the text of a single-paragraph message attributed to Clinton that wished Epstein well and praised his “childlike curiosity.” The note is dated 2003, the newspaper reported. Clinton has long maintained he did not know about allegations against Epstein. Epstein was awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges in 2019 when he died in his cell; his death was ruled a suicide.
Also published by the committee were a number of other pages from the binder, including an illustration described by people who viewed the album that shows Epstein in 1983 offering balloons and candy to three young girls and a later depiction of Epstein in 2003 being massaged by topless women as a jet flies overhead. The drawing is captioned, according to the committee release, "What a great country!"
The release comes as the Oversight Committee continues to review a trove of documents provided to Congress earlier this year. The committee, chaired by Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., said Monday it had made public additional materials obtained from the estate. Attorney General Pam Bondi, who previously led Florida’s probe of Epstein, handed 33,000 pages of documents to the committee last month; portions of the committee's review were released on Sept. 2, 2025, Comer said.
The binder has drawn renewed attention because it reportedly contains a birthday message alleged to have been written by former President Donald Trump that included a crude drawing and a handwritten note. The Wall Street Journal reported the purported Trump message and signature; Trump has denied creating the message and filed a $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the newspaper, calling the item fake.
Monday’s batch also included a photograph from the book showing Epstein and a longtime Mar-a-Lago member standing beside an oversized check, with a handwritten caption that joked about "selling a 'fully depreciated' [redacted] to Donald Trump for $22,500." The Mar-a-Lago member whose name was redacted told the Wall Street Journal she had no prior knowledge of the annotation and her lawyer called it a "disgusting and deeply disturbing hoax." The man who provided the photograph to investigators, Joel Pashcow, was listed in Epstein’s contact records reviewed by the committee.
The White House pushed back on the materials attributed to Trump. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt posted on X, saying the reporting “proves this entire ‘Birthday Card’ story is false,” and asserted that Trump did not draw or sign the alleged message. White House officials have said the president’s legal team will pursue litigation over the reporting. Deputy White House chief of staff Taylor Budowich posted images of examples of Trump’s signature to contend the note was inauthentic.
Democrats on the Oversight Committee said the new releases underscored questions about the extent of Epstein’s network and whether accountability had been inadequate. Rep. Robert Garcia, the committee’s Democratic ranking member, said in a statement to the Wall Street Journal that the newly released images undermined the former president’s denials and called on the committee to make all files public.
Lawyers for Epstein’s estate informed the committee in a letter obtained by Oversight staff that the estate does not possess an original copy of Epstein’s so-called "Black Book," which had been thought to contain contacts and addresses tied to his network, and that the book may have been seized by the FBI in searches of Epstein’s residences in 2019. "The Estate does not possess the original 'Black Book', which may have been seized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation during the searches of Epstein's residences in 2019," the letter said. The estate's attorneys also said they were not aware of any list of clients involved in sex trafficking facilitated by Epstein.
Committee Democrats have said only a small portion of the material provided by Bondi’s team contained information not previously in the public record, noting that much of the new material consisted of Customs and Border Protection flight logs documenting Epstein’s private jet travel between 2000 and 2014. Republicans on the committee have released excerpts they say raise further questions about potential influence and contacts.
The release of the birthday-book pages adds to a patchwork of documents, testimony and reporting assembled since Epstein’s 2019 arrest, Maxwell’s 2021 conviction and subsequent sentencing, and the death of Epstein. Oversight members said the committee will continue to review material from the estate and other sources as lawmakers press for additional transparency about Epstein’s associates and the federal response to his crimes.