Republican lawmakers have no interest in probing a sexually suggestive letter President Donald Trump wrote to Jeffrey Epstein.
Kentucky Rep. James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, handed Trump a massive win in the Epstein saga on Tuesday by waving off a greeting written by the president for the notorious sex offender’s 50th birthday.
“The president says he did not sign it, so I take the president at his word,” Comer told CNN. “I don’t think the Oversight Committee is going to invest in looking up something 22 years ago.”
“What does it have to do with anything?” he added.
CNN’s Chief Congressional Correspondent Manu Raju added that Comer’s panel “won’t probe the issue.”
On Monday, Democrats on the Oversight Committee published all 238 pages of an infamous birthday book compiled for Epstein by his then-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell.
The third volume of the book contains a letter signed by Trump that concludes: “A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy Birthday—and may every day be another wonderful secret.” The lengthy greeting was overlaid with a doodle showing the silhouette of a woman’s body.
The White House maintained that Trump “did not write” and “did not sign” the letter, with Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt offering to welcome a handwriting expert to back up its denial.
Conservatives quickly fell in line and echoed the administration’s talking points.
Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan said he had faith in Trump and Comer.
“I trust what the president said and the Oversight Committee is looking into it,” he told reporters. “I trust Chairman Comer, I trust the committee.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson also didn’t appear convinced that the letter was real: “They say it’s not.”
Trump previously dismissed the birthday greeting as a “fake.”
“I don’t even know what they’re talking about,” he told reporters in July, when the Wall Street Journal first reported on the letter. “Now, somebody could have written a letter and used my name, but that’s happened a lot.”
Shortly after Democrats published the birthday book on Monday, Comer accused them of “cherry-picking documents and politicizing information” — even though Epstein’s estate handed over the document because of a subpoena signed by Comer himself.
“President Trump is not accused of any wrongdoing and Democrats are ignoring the new information the Committee received today,” Comer said. “The committee will pursue additional Epstein bank records based on this new information. Democrats must decide if their priority is justice for the survivors or politics.”
Comer also told reporters that the committee was looking into ways to interview potential Epstein associates who were name-dropped by survivors at a meeting with lawmakers last week.
California Democrat Robert Garcia, a ranking member of the Oversight Committee, warned that “the Epstein case is far from dead and is not a hoax.”
Garcia, whom Comer described as a “drama queen,” said an Oversight Committee team was poring over all documents handed over by the Epstein estate.
“In fact, Oversight Dems are just getting started in our investigation,” he said. “We will fight like hell to get to the full truth and end this White House cover-up.”
