Jeffrey Epstein’s Birthday Book Included Letters From Bill Clinton, Leon Black
Former president, Wall Street billionaire were listed along with Donald Trump as ‘friends’ in the 2003 book’s table of contents, which named around five dozen contributors
The biggest name in Jeffrey Epstein’s birthday book back in 2003 was a past president rather than a future one.
Epstein’s former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell was keen for Bill Clinton and other boldface names to submit letters for the special gift, according to people involved in putting it together.
In the end, she was successful. The leather-bound album—assembled before Epstein was first arrested in 2006—included a page with a single paragraph in Clinton’s distinctive scrawl:
It’s reassuring isn’t it, to have lasted as long, across all the years of learning and knowing, adventures and [illegible word], and also to have your childlike curiosity, the drive to make a difference and the solace of friends.
A spokesman for Clinton declined to comment on the birthday message, which was reviewed by the Journal. He referred the Journal to a previous statement that the former president had cut off ties more than a decade before Epstein was arrested in 2019 and didn’t know about Epstein’s alleged crimes.
The former president was among around five dozen people, including Donald Trump, Wall Street billionaire Leon Black, fashion designer Vera Wang and media owner Mort Zuckerman, who ended up with letters in the 2003 book, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
The letter bearing Trump’s signature, which had the outline of a naked woman, was one of the more memorable pages, according to the people involved in putting the album together. Trump has called the letter “a fake thing.”
“The Wall Street Journal is writing yet another defamatory story about the President of the United States about an alleged letter they don’t even have because the President never wrote it,” Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said in a text message.
The professionally bound birthday book had multiple volumes and included a table of contents that listed the contributions, organized into groups. While many letter writers weren’t famous, some categories had notable people.
Clinton and Trump were listed under the “Friends” group, along with about 20 other associates such as Black, Zuckerman, former Victoria’s Secret leader Leslie Wexner, attorney Alan Dershowitz, U.K. politician Peter Mandelson and the late Jean-Luc Brunel, who ran a modeling agency.
A “Business” group included the late Alan “Ace” Greenberg and the late James “Jimmy” Cayne. Both men worked at Bear Stearns when Epstein was at the investment bank in the 1970s.
Other people were grouped under categories such as “Science,” “Brooklyn” and “Family.”
‘Love and kisses’
Some of the messages were anodyne birthday wishes, but others were bawdy and made crude jokes about sex, according to the documents reviewed by the Journal.
A letter from Nathan Myhrvold, a billionaire and former Microsoft executive, said he was sending photos from a recent trip to Africa. “They seemed more appropriate than anything I could put in words,” said the letter, which ended with a typed “Nathan.” It was followed by photos of a monkey screaming, lions and zebras mating, and a zebra with its penis visible.
A spokeswoman for Myhrvold said he doesn’t recall the submission and that he is a wildlife photographer who “regularly shares photos of and writes about animal behavior.”
The spokeswoman said Myhrvold only knew Epstein because he attended TED conferences and was a donor to scientific research.
The submission with Black’s name had a handwritten poem with a rhyme scheme. The poem included the acronym “V.F.P.C.” with an asterisk that said it stood for “Vanity Fair Poster Child,” a reference to a magazine profile of Epstein that was in the works.
Two lines in the poem read:
Blonde, Red or Brunette, spread out geographically
With this net of fish, Jeff’s now ‘The Old Man and The Sea’
It was signed: “Love and kisses, Leon.”
A spokesman for Black, the co-founder of Apollo Global Management, declined to comment on the letter.
Black has said he met Epstein around 1996 and paid him for tax- and estate-planning. He has said he regretted having had any involvement with Epstein. Apollo said in 2021 that a legal review found Black paid Epstein a total of $158 million from 2012 to 2017, including $10 million for Epstein’s charity, and found no evidence Black was involved in Epstein’s criminal activities.
A letter from the current U.K. ambassador to the U.S., Mandelson, included photos of whiskey and a tropical island, and referred to Epstein as “my best pal.”
A spokesman for Mandelson declined to comment. In 2023, Mandelson told the Journal that he “very much regrets ever having been introduced to Epstein.”
The letter from Wang, the fashion designer, joked about putting Epstein on “The Bachelor” and suggested they go on a shopping trip.
Wang didn’t respond to requests for comment. The designer told the Journal in 2023 that she regrets ever associating with Epstein.
A letter from Zuckerman, who was then an owner of the New York Daily News, said that he had searched the newspaper for information about Epstein and joked he was born in Liechtenstein and had a wife and three children. Zuckerman didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Assembling the album
Maxwell enlisted the help of assistants and others to assemble the album, according to the people familiar with the process and people who received the invites. Maxwell requested drawings, photos or stories from Epstein’s associates to celebrate his 50th birthday.
As the letters and images came in, they were scanned into a computer. Some of the people who assisted on the project recalled seeing the Trump and Clinton pages among the documents at the time. The letters were taken to a New York City bookbinder to create the calfskin album.
Brad Edwards, a lawyer who has represented more than 200 of Epstein’s victims, said on MSNBC Wednesday evening that he has multiple clients who remember the birthday book. “The existence of the book is an absolute fact,” Edwards said.
Jeffrey Epstein’s brother Mark Epstein told the Journal that he recalls Maxwell putting together the book for his brother’s birthday. The album included a note from Mark Epstein.
Several digital copies of the album have been created. Pages have been reviewed by Justice Department officials who investigated Jeffrey Epstein and Maxwell years ago, according to people familiar with the matter. The album is part of Epstein’s estate.
It’s unclear if any of the pages of the album are part of the Trump administration’s recent review of the Epstein case files.
Epstein died in jail in 2019 after he was arrested on federal sex-trafficking charges. Maxwell was found guilty in 2021 of helping Epstein’s sex trafficking and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Maxwell, who is seeking to have her conviction overturned, didn’t respond to a letter requesting an interview. Her family issued a statement last week saying she didn’t receive a fair trial, and one of her lawyers, David Oscar Markus, called on Trump to intervene.
The biggest name in the album was Clinton, who left the White House in 2001. Clinton was photographed with Epstein and Maxwell at a White House event in 1993 and socialized with Epstein in the early 2000s. At his Manhattan townhouse, Epstein hung a painting that depicted Clinton wearing a blue dress and red heels, according to people who saw it.
Clinton took four trips on Epstein’s private jet and once visited his Manhattan townhouse, each time with his Secret Service team and for reasons related to the Clinton Foundation’s work, Clinton’s spokesman said in 2019.
Trump, who also socialized with Epstein in the 1990s and 2000s, said in 2019 when Epstein was arrested that he hadn’t talked to him for about 15 years.
On July 17, the Journal published an article about the letter with Trump’s signature. The next day, Trump sued the Journal’s reporters, Journal publisher Dow Jones, parent company News Corp and executives, calling the letter “nonexistent” and alleging the article defamed him.
A spokeswoman for Dow Jones said, “We have full confidence in the rigor and accuracy of our reporting, and will vigorously defend against any lawsuit.”
The letter from Wexner, the retail billionaire, contained a short message and a line drawing of what appeared to be a woman’s breasts. Wexner declined to comment through a spokesman about his letter. Wexner previously said he cut ties with Epstein in 2007.
The letter from Dershowitz, who represented Epstein in the first criminal case in the 2000s, included a mock-up of a “Vanity Unfair” magazine cover with mock headlines. “It’s been a long time and I don’t recall the content of what I may have written,” Dershowitz said.
