The letter that President Trump allegedly wrote to Jeffrey Epstein for his 50th birthday is now public, after both Democrats on the House Oversight Committee and the Wall Street Journal disclosed copies of the message on Monday. The signature on the bottom of the “bawdy” note bears a striking resemblance to the president’s handwriting. 

The Journal first reported the existence of the seemingly sexual letter in July, at which point Mr. Trump claimed it was fake. The president then sued the outlet, the journalists who reported on the letter, the Journal’s parent company, and the paper’s publisher, Rupert Murdoch, for $10 billion. 

“We got Trump’s birthday note to Jeffrey Epstein that the President said doesn’t exist,” the Oversight Committee’s Democratic minority wrote on X, including a photo of the letter. “Trump talks about a ‘wonderful secret’ the two of them shared. What is he hiding? Release the files!”

Mr. Trump allegedly wrote the short note to Epstein as part of a collection of letters and messages that were being compiled into a book for Epstein’s 50th birthday. In the final passage, the letter states, “A pal is a wonderful thing.”

“Happy Birthday — and my every day be another wonderful secret,” the letter states. 

Outlining the note is a crude drawing of what appears to be a nude woman. At the bottom of the page, underneath the printed name “Donald J. Trump” is a signature that says only “Donald,” which looks nearly identical to the president’s handwriting. 

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt put out a statement on X to say that the Journal’s disclosure of the letter on Monday “PROVES” that it is false. 

“The latest piece published by the Wall Street Journal PROVES this entire ‘Birthday Card’ story is false. As I have said all along, it’s very clear President Trump did not draw this picture, and he did not sign it,” Ms. Leavitt wrote. “President Trump’s legal team will continue to aggressively pursue litigation.”

Mr. Trump’s deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich posted on X a series of recent signatures from the president to compare it to the Epstein letter. He said in his post that “it’s not his signature” on the Epstein letter, and that the Journal and its parent company are engaged in “DEFAMATION!”

Mr. Trump sued the Journal and Mr. Murdoch in July, just days after they published their original story. On Monday, the Journal made its copy of the letter public immediately after the Oversight Committee minority — which received the note as part of a subpoena for records from Epstein’s estate — posted its copy online. 

Vice President JD Vance came out swinging to defend the president when the article was first published, arguing that the rhetoric of the letter did not sound anything like Mr. Trump. The vice president also said that the Journal refused to show the White House its copy of the letter.

“Forgive my language but this story is complete and utter bulls—. The WSJ should be ashamed for publishing it,” Mr. Vance wrote on X at the time. “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?”

Mr. Trump’s attorneys, in their $10 billion lawsuit, make a more dramatic claim — that the letter did not even exist at all.  

“On the one hand, Defendants … falsely pass off as fact that President Trump, in 2003, wrote, drew, and signed this letter. And on the other hand, Defendants … failed to attach the letter, failed to attach the alleged drawing, failed to show proof that President Trump authored or signed any such letter, and failed to explain how this purported letter was obtained,” the attorneys wrote. 

“The reason for those failures is because no authentic letter or drawing exists. Defendants concocted this story to malign President Trump’s character and integrity and deceptively portray him in a false light,” they concluded.