A Republican lawmaker has pushed the wild claim that an autopen could have been used to forge Donald Trump’s signature in a lewd birthday message for pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
On Monday, the House Oversight Committee released Epstein’s 50th birthday book, compiled by Ghislaine Maxwell, the jailed longtime associate of the disgraced financier.
The 2003 book contains a loving message allegedly from Trump, which the president has previously dismissed as “fake,” and features the outline of a naked woman alongside the words “May every day be another wonderful secret.” Trump’s signature apparently appears at the bottom of the page, positioned just below the waist of the drawing.
The release of the birthday book, which was supplied by the Epstein estate, has triggered fresh denials from the White House about its authenticity, while MAGA Republicans such as Tennessee Rep. Tim Burchett have scrambled to dismiss the message amid renewed scrutiny of Trump’s ties to the convicted sex offender, who died in 2019.
“I mean, anybody can do a signature. We’ve seen autopen used quite a bit with the Biden administration. So I’ve never known Trump to be much of an artist, either,” Burchett told CNN’s Manu Raju. “So I kind of draw that into question.”
When asked if he believed someone could have forged Trump’s signature in Epstein’s birthday book, Burchett replied: “It’s so easy to do. I just don’t buy any of it right now, because we had a prior administration that’s had a history of dishonesty, and they bring something like this out now. Why wouldn’t they bring it out during the [2024] campaign?”
Burchett did not explain why anyone would have forged Trump’s signature in 2003—a time when Epstein had not yet been publicly exposed as a pedophile and 12 years before Trump launched his first successful White House bid.
Republicans had previously promoted conspiracy theories that former President Joe Biden’s mental health had declined so severely that aides were forced to use an autopen—a mechanical device that replicates a person’s handwriting—to sign off on official documents, including pardons.
Biden has acknowledged using autopen, as past presidents have, to sign multiple executive actions, but has rejected GOP claims that his signature was ever used without his approval.
The White House is still insisting that it is not Trump’s signature in Epstein’s book, suggesting that the long stroke at the end it of the mark is not how the president signs off his name.
However, there are multiple examples of Trump’s signature carrying the long black line at the end around that period, including ones revealed by MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell and lawyer George Conway.
“Time for @newscorp to open that checkbook—it’s not his signature,” deputy White House chief of staff Taylor Budowich wrote on X while sharing images of Trump’s other autographs to try and disprove the claims.
“As I have said all along, it’s very clear President Trump did not draw this picture, and he did not sign it,” added White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
Trump is suing The Wall Street Journal, the outlet that first reported on the birthday message—and its owner, Rupert Murdoch, for $10 billion, alleging defamation in its reporting on the Epstein book.
Burchett has been contacted for further comment by The Daily Beast.
