‘It’s a dead issue’: Trump declines to comment on alleged Epstein ‘birthday book’ letter
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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump declined to comment on the letter he allegedly signed for Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th “birthday book” in 2003, calling it a “dead issue” when asked by NBC News.
“I don’t comment on something that’s a dead issue. I gave all comments to the staff. It’s a dead issue,” Trump said on Tuesday morning, according to NBC News.
On Monday, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released an image of the birthday message allegedly sent by Trump, after the panel received documents and communications from Epstein’s estate.
Trump’s denied writing the letter, calling it “fake” after the Wall Street Journal first reported on the alleged birthday book and the contribution from Trump in mid-July. Trump also filed a $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the newspaper. Dow Jones, the parent company of the Journal, said it has full confidence in the accuracy of the reporting.
The White House on Monday denied the signature on the birthday message belongs to the president.
“As I have said all along, it’s very clear President Trump did not draw this picture, and he did not sign it. President Trump’s legal team will continue to aggressively pursue litigation,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote on X.
Trump hasn’t publicly weighed in on the latest developments beyond his brief comments to NBC News.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, a Kentucky Republican, on Tuesday took aim at Democrats on the panel for their handling of the documents received from the Epstein estate.
“The Democrats, they find one thing in there, and they promote it and try to get a narrative. This investigation is about providing justice and accountability for the victims,” Comer said.
Comer also told reporters the committee expects to receive more documents as part of its Epstein probe.
“We’ve got a lot more documents we expect to get in,” he said. “We’re going to bring a lot of people in for deposition, so this investigation is moving along very rapidly, and hopefully we’ll get some answers and some justice very soon.”
Democratic Rep. Robert Garcia, the ranking member on the panel, said after Monday’s disclosure that Trump has more to answer for on the Epstein matter.
“The Oversight Committee has secured the infamous ‘Birthday Book’ that contains a note from President Trump that he has said does not exist,” Garcia said in a statement. “It’s time for the President to tell us the truth about what he knew and release all the Epstein files. The American people are demanding answers.”
Epstein was arrested in July 2019 and charged in a federal indictment with conspiracy and child sex trafficking. He died in custody a month later, while awaiting trial. His death was ruled a suicide by hanging.
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump underwent vascular testing after he had swelling in his legs, with all results within normal limits, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday.
Leavitt said Trump noted “mild swelling in his lower legs,” which prompted the White House medical team to evaluate him.
“The president underwent a comprehensive examination including diagnostic vascular studies, bilateral lower extremity intravenous doppler ultrasounds were performed and revealed chronic venous insufficiency, a benign and common condition, particularly in individuals over the age of 70,” Leavitt said in the Thursday White House press briefing.
There was no evidence of deep vein thrombosis or arterial disease and an echocardiogram showed normal cardiac structure and function, Leavitt said, adding that all results from testing were “within normal limits.”
Leavitt also address photos circulated online that show minor bruising on the back of the president’s hand, attributing the bruising to “with minor soft tissue irritation from frequent handshaking.”
“The president remains in excellent health,” Leavitt said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump on Monday continued to take aim at Chicago as the city braces for potential federal intervention.
“We’d love to go into Chicago and straighten it out,” Trump said as he delivered remarks at the Museum of the Bible.
Earlier Monday, Trump wrote on his social media platform that the people of Illinois should “band together and DEMAND PROTECTION” from what he has said is a crime problem in Chicago, despite police data showing murders and shootings down this year compared to last.
“I want to help the people of Chicago, not hurt them. Only the Criminals will be hurt! We can move fast and stop this madness,” Trump wrote in the post.
The comments come after a war of words over the weekend between Trump and Illinois leaders following a controversial post from the president referencing the newly rebranded Department of War.
“Chicago is about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR,” Trump wrote in a post on Saturday that included a manipulated image and a caption reading, “I love the smell of deportations in the morning,” a nod to the often-quoted line “I love the smell of napalm in the morning” from the war film “Apocalypse Now.”
Trump later downplayed the threat, telling reporters on Sunday: “We’re not going to war. We’re going to clean up our cities.”
Democratic leaders in Illinois slammed Trump’s rhetoric, and protests unfolded throughout Chicago on Saturday against the president’s threat to increase immigration enforcement and dispatch National Guard troops.
“‘I want to help people, not hurt them,’ says the guy who just threatened an American city with the Department of War,” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker wrote on X on Monday.
While Trump on Monday said that he wanted to “fix” Chicago, he also signaled his administration may not send in troops without a request from state and local officials, saying his administration is “waiting for a call from Chicago.”
“I don’t know why Chicago isn’t calling us, saying, please give us help when you have over just a short period of time, 50 murders and hundreds of people shot. And then you have a governor that stands up and says how crime is just fine. It’s, it’s really crazy, but we’re bringing back law and order to our country,” Trump said.
Pritzker has made clear he will not be making such a request, telling reporters last week: “When did we become a country where it’s okay for the U.S. president to insist on national television that a state should call him to beg for anything, especially something we don’t want?”
Meanwhile, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Monday launched an expanded operation dubbed “Midway Blitz,” that will “target the criminal illegal aliens who flocked to Chicago and Illinois because they knew Governor Pritzker and his sanctuary policies would protect them and allow them to roam free on American streets,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a post on X.
Trump, touting his administration’s federal takeover of Washington, suggested on Monday the same be done in other American cities.
“We could do the same thing in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles,” Trump said in his remarks at the Museum of the Bible.
“We saved Los Angeles, we saved Los Angeles,” he said.
The Trump administration deployed thousands of National Guard troops to Los Angeles in June, over the protests of Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. A federal judge recently ruled the use of federal troops in the California city was illegal.
New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch earlier Monday said she is “revolted” by the presence of the National Guard on big city streets.
“As a lifelong New Yorker, I am revolted by the idea of the militarization of our streets,” Tisch said during a breakfast at the Citizens Budget Commission. “I will be very clear with anybody, all of you, the attorney general, anyone who wants to talk to me about this that the NYPD, we’ve got this. We don’t need or want the federal government’s help here in that way.”
ABC News’ Aaron Katersky and Michelle Stoddart contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) –The Texas State Capitol was cleared of visitors Tuesday evening and closed to the public after a social media threat, the Texas Department of Public Safety said in a statement.
The disruption came amid protests in support of Democratic State Rep. Nicole Collier, who has been confined to the House after she refused a law enforcement escort during a contentious redistricting fight that saw several Democrats leave the state earlier this month to hamper the redrawing of new maps.
In a statement, the Texas Department of Public Safety said the message was posted earlier Tuesday. “In that message, the individual calls on others to go to the Capitol building and take action by shooting and killing those who will not allow lawmakers to leave,” the department said.
The department said it evacuated the public from the Capitol building around 6:30 p.m. local time “for the safety of those at the Texas State Capitol, and out of an abundance of caution.”
The department said it’s working to identify the person responsible for the posting. The Capitol was closed to the public for the rest of the day.
While the public was evacuated from the Capitol, some Democratic House Members remained in the building with many state troopers present.
Several hours before the building was cleared of visitors, a handful of Texas House Democrats said they planned to stay overnight in the State Capitol in solidarity with Collier — joining her in refusing law enforcement escorts mandated for them because they had broken quorum to prevent House Republicans from changing the state’s congressional maps to make five districts more GOP-friendly.
A few of them tore up their paperwork to consent to an escort during a media availability outside the House chamber Tuesday afternoon.
Democratic state Rep. Penny Morales Shaw told reporters at a news conference, “This is illegitimate, this is a wrongful use of power and I will not condone it, and I don’t want to be a part of setting a very bad and low precedent for future legislators.”
Shaw was joined by state Reps. Rhetta Andrews Bowers, Cassandra Hernandez and Mihaela Plesa outside the House chamber.
Rep. Rhetta Andrews Bowers told reporters, “We walked in, we are not running from anything. We have not been running from anything this entire time. So I want to be clear that this is a blatant violation of our freedoms as Texans, as Americans, and of duly elected officials.”
Saying the law enforcement escort was a waste of taxpayer dollars, Bowers added, “We are representatives of the people of Texas. Those resources belong to Texans right now, families in the Hill Country who lost everything to devastating floods need our help. Yet, instead of providing relief, those dollars are being spent on constant [Department Public Safety] patrols.”
Some Democrats returned to the statehouse on Monday and allowed the legislature to reach a quorum, but they continued to speak out against the controversial redistricting.
It is likely that the redistricting plan, which was pushed by President Donald Trump, will pass. The House is set to consider the bill containing the new maps on Wednesday, according to an updated House calendar. The bill, which was newly filed for the second special session after the first one was adjourned due to not having a quorum, passed out of committee on Monday.
Hernandez said that other colleagues are heading to the Capitol to stay overnight and plan to fight the bill when they are on the House floor tomorrow. She did not specify how many were en route or when they could show up.
“So while we’re in here, doing our slumber party for democracy, you will see that we will be working on the floor, strategizing and making sure that we bring the fight tomorrow, and we will not allow them to continue to keep silencing our communities and taking away our abilities as duly elected officials to represent the people that we have been elected to represent in all of Texans,” she said.
Collier and House Democratic Caucus Chair Rep. Gene Wu posted a video on X on Tuesday chronicling how they and their colleague, state Rep. Vince Perez, slept in the chambers Monday night.
“We had two chairs that we put together. [Wu] slept in two chairs. I slept in two chairs. Our other colleague, Vince Perez, he slept in a couple of chairs,” Collier said in the X video.
Wu, who did sign the waiver, said in his post that he joined Perez and Collier in support of “#goodtrouble,” referencing the late Democratic Rep. John Lewis.
“We know this is a #riggedredistricting process. Democrats are not giving up!” he posted.
Collier echoed that statement.
“I think they need to find their resistance,” she said of her supporters.” Finding your voice and your resistance — that will make a change in America.”
Plesa said Collier had gotten support and calls from people around the country — including former Vice President Kamala Harris.
Harris called Collier Tuesday and gave her words of encouragement, according to a representative for the former vice president.
“Know that we’re in the rooms with you no matter what. And you have our support,” Harris told Collier.
House Speaker Dustin Burrows responded to Collier’s action in a statement Tuesday, saying, “Rep. Collier’s choice to stay and not sign the permission slip is well within her rights under the House Rules.”
“I am choosing to spend my time focused on moving the important legislation on the call to overhaul camp safety, provide property tax reform and eliminate the STAAR test — the results Texans care about,” he added.
A spokesperson for the Texas House Democratic Caucus told ABC News that Collier is effectively stuck in the Capitol until Wednesday at the earliest if she doesn’t sign the form, because that is the earliest the House could do a rules change.
Collier told ABC News on Monday that she was taking a stand for herself and her constituents.
“Look, I’m not a criminal. I’ve exercised my right, and I am tired of the government controlling our movement, and so this is nothing more than the government exercising its control over people who exercise their constitutional rights to resist,” she said.
Collier said she had no issue with the DPS officers themselves since they were ordered by the state Republican leadership to escort the selected Democrats; however, she was angry that the directive was made in the first place.
“I’m tired of being pushed around and told what to do when I disagree with the actions of our government,” she said.
“You don’t have to do this. You don’t have to dig in deeper into the harm that you’re doing. You are going to get what you want,” Collier said of the Republican leadership. “This is just petty and unnecessary, and I don’t think that it is fair. It’s demeaning to me as a person and to my community, and I just won’t take it.”
