An enormous reproduction of a birthday message allegedly written by U.S. President Donald Trump in 2003 to late convicted intercourse trafficker Jeffrey Epstein appeared on the Nationwide Mall in Washington, D.C.
The cardboard first turned public in September after it was launched by the Democratic Get together. This got here after Trump threatened to sue the Wall Road Journal in July for reporting Trump had produced the suggestive letter and drawing as a part of an album created by Ghislaine Maxell for Epstein’s fiftieth birthday in 2003.
The ten-foot-tall birthday card was displayed throughout from the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 19 and browse, “Completely happy birthday to a ‘terrific man!’” on one aspect.
On the opposite aspect of the cardboard was the alleged message Trump reportedly despatched Epstein. The textual content was framed by a hand-drawn define of what seems to be a torso of a girl with a message that claims, “We’ve got sure issues in widespread, Jeffrey.”
“A pal is an excellent factor. Completely happy Birthday—and should day by day be one other fantastic secret,” the letter learn, signed on the backside by Trump.
Trump has denied having something to do with it and known as the creations “a pretend factor,” including that he “by no means wrote an image in my life. I don’t draw footage of ladies.”
The show is available in time for what would have been Epstein’s 73rd birthday on Jan. 20. Epstein died in a Manhattan jail whereas awaiting trial in 2019 on fees that mentioned he sexually abused and trafficked dozens of underage women.
Beside the cardboard statue is one other statue of stacked packing containers with redacted information and a bunch of markers. A plaque reads: “The Secret Handshake invitations you to have fun the birthday of President Donald Trump’s ‘closest buddy,’ Jeffrey Epstein, with a bigger than life tribute to their intimate correspondence.”
“Really feel Free To Signal The Birthday Card With Your Personal Message To The Administration,” the plaque provides.
A protest artwork set up to spotlight Jeffrey Epstein’s birthday of Jan. 20, 1953, is photographed on the Nationwide Mall, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026, in Washington.
AP Photograph/Alex Brandon
Folks take a look at a protest artwork set up to spotlight Jeffrey Epstein’s birthday of Jan. 20, 1953, on the Nationwide Mall, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026, in Washington.
AP Photograph/Alex Brandon
The birthday card reproduction comes from a gaggle that identifies itself as “The Secret Handshake.”
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In a press release to CBS affiliate WUSA9, the group claims that the set up appeared in a single day on Jan. 18 and is permitted till Friday, Jan. 23.
“Kudos to those Trump Deranged Liberals for consistently inventing new methods to mild Democrat donor cash on fireplace by spreading pretend information,” White Home deputy press secretary Abigail Jackson told the Daily Beast in a remark concerning the reproduction.
In September, The Secret Handshake group unveiled a statue of Trump and Epstein holding arms on the Nationwide Mall.
The bronze sculpture, titled “Finest Associates Ceaselessly,” first appeared on Sept. 23 on the Nationwide Mall in Washington however was eliminated the next day.
The momentary set up, which depicted the lads holding arms as they frolicked, smiled and stared into one another’s eyes, reappeared on Oct. 2 amid a authorities shutdown.
“We have fun the long-lasting bond between President Donald J. Trump and his ‘closest buddy,’ Jeffrey Epstein,” a plaque on the foot of the set up learn.
A bike owner stops to take pictures of a statue that includes President Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein dancing, titled “In Honor of Friendship Month,” that appeared on the east finish of the Nationwide Mall in Washington on Tuesday morning, September 23, 2025.
Invoice Clark/ Getty Photographs
Carved individually had been quotes from the cryptic birthday observe.
White Home deputy press secretary Jackson dismissed the set up on the time in a press release to The Hill.
“Liberals are free to waste their cash nevertheless they see match — but it surely’s not information that Epstein knew Donald Trump, as a result of Donald Trump kicked Epstein out of his membership for being a creep,” she mentioned on the time.
“Democrats, the media, and the group that’s losing their cash on this statue knew about Epstein and his victims for years and did nothing to assist them whereas President Trump was calling for transparency, and is now delivering on it with hundreds of pages of paperwork.”
The place are the Epstein Information?
The brand new statue’s arrival comes amid mounting strain on the Trump administration to launch all Epstein-related information, after the Justice Division missed a Dec. 19 deadline set by the Epstein Information Transparency Act. The legislation, signed on Nov. 19, required the division to make data public inside 30 days.
It’s now greater than a month previous the deadline.
The Justice Division mentioned earlier in January that it had launched 12,285 paperwork, with greater than 2 million paperwork nonetheless being reviewed. They’ve mentioned the information’ launch was slowed by redactions required to guard the identities of abuse victims.
In a court filing dated Jan. 15, the Justice Division acknowledged that “tens of millions” of pages of supplies had been excellent.
“So far, the Division has employed over 5 hundred reviewers to overview and redact tens of millions of pages of supplies from the investigations into Epstein and his convicted co-conspirator,” the submitting mentioned.
The submitting didn’t share a complete variety of information that stay excellent or reveal once they could be made public.
The congressional co-sponsors of laws that pressured the general public launch of investigative paperwork within the intercourse trafficking probe of Epstein and Maxwell asked a New York judge in a letter to nominate a impartial skilled to supervise launch of the supplies. The letter, dated Jan. 8, was delivered to the decide on Jan. 12.
U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, and Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, informed U.S. District Choose Paul A. Engelmayer that they had “pressing and grave considerations” that the Justice Division has didn’t adjust to the Epstein Information Transparency Act, which required the information to be launched in December.
They mentioned they believed “prison violations have taken place” within the launch course of.
Of their letter, Khanna and Massie wrote that the Division of Justice’s launch of 12,000 paperwork out of greater than 2 million paperwork being reviewed was a “flagrant violation” of the legislation’s launch necessities and had precipitated “critical trauma to survivors.”
“Put merely, the DOJ can’t be trusted with making obligatory disclosures underneath the Act,” the congressmen mentioned as they requested for the appointment of an unbiased monitor to make sure all paperwork and electronically saved data are instantly made public.
In addition they really helpful {that a} court-appointed monitor be given authority to inform and put together studies concerning the true nature and extent of the doc manufacturing and whether or not improper redactions or conduct have taken place.
By Jan. 16, Manhattan’s high federal prosecutor mentioned that Engelmayer lacks the authority to nominate a impartial skilled to supervise the general public launch of paperwork.
Engelmayer was informed in a letter signed by U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton that he should reject the request by the congressional cosponsors of the Epstein Information Transparency Act to nominate a impartial skilled.
Clayton mentioned Khanna and Massie shouldn’t have standing with the courtroom that might permit them to hunt the “extraordinary” aid of the appointment of a particular grasp and unbiased monitor.
Engelmayer “lacks the authority” to grant such a request, he mentioned, notably as a result of the congressional representatives who made the request should not events to the prison case that led to Maxwell’s December 2021 intercourse trafficking conviction and subsequent 20-year jail sentence for recruiting women and girls for Epstein to abuse and aiding the abuse.
Khanna mentioned Clayton’s response “misconstrued” the intent of their request.
“We’re informing the Courtroom of great misconduct by the Division of Justice that requires a treatment, one we consider this Courtroom has the authority to supply, and which victims themselves have requested,” Khanna mentioned in a press release.
“Our function is to make sure that DOJ complies with its representations to the Courtroom and with its authorized obligations underneath our legislation,” he added.
The Justice Division expects to replace the courtroom “once more shortly” relating to its progress in turning over paperwork from the Epstein and Maxwell investigative information, Clayton mentioned within the letter.
—With information from World Information’ Ariel Rabinovitch, Rachel Goodman and The Related Press
