House Democrats on Monday released a 2003 birthday note from President Donald Trump to Jeffrey Epstein, a disclosure that CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig said significantly weakens Mr. Trump's civil suit against The Wall Street Journal.
The note's public release followed a subpoena by the House Oversight Committee to Epstein's estate. In July, Mr. Trump sued the Journal for billions, contending reporters had quoted a "nonexistent" letter and accusing the paper's owner, Rupert Murdoch, of authorizing what he called a false story. The image released Monday includes a hand-drawn silhouette of a naked woman and a handwritten reference to "enigmas" that "never age."
Appearing on CNN's "The Source" Monday, host Kaitlan Collins asked Honig to assess the future of the lawsuit in the wake of the release. "Well, Donald Trump’s lead argument just went out the window, Kaitlan," Honig said. He noted that two passages in the complaint filed by Mr. Trump explicitly described the letter as "nonexistent," language that is now clearly contradicted by the committee's release.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly denied authoring the note. In July, after The Wall Street Journal first reported on the letter, he wrote on social media, "These are not my words, not the way I talk. Also, I don't draw pictures." White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt posted on X after the photo's release that it was "very clear President Trump did not draw this picture, and he did not sign it," and said the president's legal team would "continue to aggressively pursue litigation."
Honig said the administration has shifted away from describing the letter as nonexistent and is instead arguing that Mr. Trump did not sign it. "Legally, that actually doesn't matter," he said, pointing to the fact that The Journal's initial report did not definitively assert that Mr. Trump signed the note and used measured, lawyerly language about uncertainties in how the letter came about.
The Journal's reporting identified reporters Khadeeja Safdar and Joe Palazzolo as having quoted the letter. Mr. Trump's complaint targeted the reporters and the paper's owner. The published image, which the Oversight Committee posted on social media Monday, came after the committee said it had obtained the original from the Epstein estate.
Ghislaine Maxwell, a convicted cooperator in the Epstein case, said in a recent prison interview that she did not recall Mr. Trump sending a birthday letter to Epstein. Honig noted that such a statement would likely be treated as hearsay in court and would not by itself carry significant weight in litigation over The Journal's reporting.
Jeffrey Epstein, a financier who had social ties to prominent figures including Mr. Trump, died in federal custody in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. The appearance of the 2003 note removes a central factual denial in Mr. Trump's filing and, according to Honig, further constrains the legal paths available to the president in the suit against the Journal. "He's running out of options," Honig said, calling the lawsuit "a long shot from the start, and it just got quite a bit longer."