Speaker Mike Johnson and congressional Republicans are backing President Trump’s claim that the signature in a book celebrating Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th birthday is a fake, rejecting assertions that the signature is uncannily similar to other documents the president signed around the same time. Democrats and the Wall Street Journal released copies of the letter, which has been known about since July, on Monday. 

Mr. Johnson has been trying to stave off a revolt from conservative lawmakers in his own party who are trying to force a release of all of the Epstein documents held by the Department of Justice and other federal agencies. A resolution from a Republican congressman, Thomas Massie, and a Democratic congressman, Ro Khanna, that would require a release of the records could receive a vote on the floor as early as October. 

Asked by reporters if he believed the signature on the note to Epstein was in fact Mr. Trump’s, Mr. Johnson responded, “I don’t.”

Several other Republican lawmakers told reporters on Monday that they also did not believe the letter was signed by the president in 2003. Many have tried to compare the signature on the letter — which reads only “Donald” — to the president’s full name signature, which he often signs on pieces of legislation in a thick black marker. 

Congressman Tim Burchett told reporters on Monday that he thought “somehow” someone could have forged the signature. “It’s so easy to do,” he said. “It’s been there for four years, and now it’s just come out? I just don’t buy it.”

“Why wouldn’t they bring it out during the campaign?” he added. 

The chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Congressman Jim Jordan, says he expects lawmakers to ask the FBI director, Kash Patel, about Epstein and the related documents at a hearing Wednesday. Mr. Jordan also says he doesn’t “buy it” that Mr. Trump signed the letter. 

“I want to have Director Patel in next week where we’ll ask him about all kinds of things,” Mr. Jordan said. 

The letter in the Epstein book allegedly from Mr. Trump states at its end: “A pal is a wonderful thing.”

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

The other contents of the book include notes from President Clinton and titans in the finance and fashion worlds, as well as crude drawings of Epstein with young women. On top of that, there are several photos of Epstein with women whose faces have been redacted. 

The White House has pushed back forcefully against the notion that Mr. Trump signed the letter. The president is continuing his lawsuit against the Journal, its parent company, and its publisher, Rupert Murdoch, for $10 billion. 

“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,” the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, wrote on X on Monday. “President Trump’s legal team will continue to aggressively pursue litigation.”

On Monday, the Journal released its own analysis of Mr. Trump’s alleged letter to Epstein, which included his signature bearing a striking resemblance to other signatures from around that time period. The Journal disclosed two letters written by Mr. Trump — one sent to a former secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, following her election to the Senate in 2000, and another sent to a conservative lawyer, George Conway, who is now a strident anti-Trump commentator, in 2006. 

In both letters, Mr. Trump signed only his first name, “Donald,” at the bottom of the page. Like with the signature in the Epstein birthday book, the signature on the letters to Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Conway had a tall, narrow “D” at the beginning of the name, while the signature ended with a lowercase “d” that had a long tail extending about an inch to the right.