What Ghislaine Maxwell said about Epstein's 50th birthday book in meetings with deputy AG
Ghislaine Maxwell told a top official for the Justice Department that Jeffrey Epstein asked her to coordinate contributions to his 50th birthday book, but said she could not recall if President Donald Trump, then a private citizen, was among those who responded, according to a transcript of Maxwell's interview last month with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.
"Do you remember President Trump submitting a letter or a card or a note?" Blanche asked.
"I don't," Maxwell replied, claiming she could not recall specific names of people who did contribute, due to the passage of time. Epstein's 50th birthday was in January 2003, three years before Epstein's first arrest in Florida.
"It's been so long," Maxwell said. "I want to tell you, but I don't remember."
President Trump filed a $10 billion lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal, its owner Rupert Murdoch, and the reporters who published a story in July describing a "bawdy" letter from Trump that the newspaper said was part of the birthday book assembled for Epstein by Maxwell.
"This is not me. This is a fake thing. It's a fake Wall Street Journal story," Trump reportedly told the Journal.
ABC News has not been able to confirm the existence of the letter.
Dow Jones, the parent company of the newspaper, said in a statement that it has "full confidence in the rigor and accuracy" of its reporting and "will vigorously defend against any lawsuit."
The Journal subsequently reported that the book also included letters from several others, including former President Bill Clinton, the founder of The Limited company Leslie Wexner, and Alan Dershowitz, the former Harvard University law professor who once represented Epstein during criminal investigations.
Maxwell told Blanche that the idea for the birthday book came about after she described to Epstein a similar project her mother had created for the 60th birthday of her father, the British publishing titan Robert Maxwell.
She said she asked some people to send contributions for Epstein's book and that Epstein asked others. She said people were asked "to say 'happy birthday with, like, have a wonderful day or something else.'"
"I did ask some people. I don't remember Mr. Trump. I don't remember who I did ask, but Epstein also asked some people himself directly," Maxwell said, according to the transcript.
"So it could have happened that way, if it happened at all," she added.
Maxwell was convicted in 2021 by a federal jury on sex trafficking and other charges. She is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for aiding and participating in Epstein's trafficking of underage girls, which involved a scheme to recruit young women and girls for massages of Epstein that turned sexual. Federal prosecutors in New York said Maxwell helped Epstein recruit, groom and ultimately abuse girls as young as 14.
Maxwell has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court for a review of her conviction, but the high court has not yet indicated whether it will hear her case. The Department of Justice has opposed her petition.
The 63-year old Maxwell, who has been incarcerated since her arrest in 2020, continued to insist during the interview with Blanche that she was not involved in the sexual exploitation of minors.
Some pages from the 50th birthday book, Maxwell told Blanche, had been reproduced and provided to her by federal prosecutors in discovery exchanges in advance of her trial.
"I remember ... there were some portions of that book," Maxwell said. "What surprised me was how few there were, because I thought if you had those, where are the rest? There was none of Mr. Trump."
Maxwell claimed that the last time she saw the book, which she described as professionally bound in brown leather, it was on a bookcase behind Epstein's desk in his Manhattan townhouse.
"And after I stopped going, I don't know what happened to it," she said, adding that she assumed the book was swept up by federal investigators in searches of Epstein's properties following his 2019 arrest.
Multiple sources have told ABC News that the birthday book is not currently in possession of federal prosecutors in NY or DC.
Brad Edwards, an attorney who has represented more than 200 alleged Epstein victims in civil litigation, said in a TV interview last month that some of his clients were involved in assembling the birthday book and could attest to its authenticity. Edwards suggested that the book is in the possession of Epstein's estate and encouraged federal lawmakers to issue a subpoena to obtain it.
"It's Jeffrey Epstein's 50th birthday book, and like all other similar possessions, the estate is obviously in possession of it," Edwards said last month in a statement to ABC News. "Ask or subpoena the estate or their lawyers, and everyone will then have the book and can move on, which is best for the victims."
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., who is a member of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, said on Monday that he intends to issue a subpoena to the estate, after the late sex offender's estate balked at his initial request for a copy of the book.
Lawyers for the estate told Khanna in a letter that "it will comply with all lawful process, and fully intends to do so."
