Epstein ‘birthday book': Victims' lawyer calls on Congress to subpoena estate
The Wall Street Journal last week reported on a letter it said President Trump had sent to Epstein. Trump has sued the Journal and denied writing the letter.
Attorney Bradley Edwards said in a Wednesday interview on MSNBC's 'The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell' that the Epstein estate possesses the 2003 'birthday book.'
He said he has 'numerous' clients who can confirm the book's authenticity and said he suspects the executors of Epstein's estate would be willing to turn over the book if they were asked to do so.
'If they didn't just voluntarily turn over the book, out of fear of reprisal, Congress could issue a subpoena to their attorneys,' Edwards said.
'I know the executors' lawyers. I worked with them for years. They're good people. They're good lawyers. They would comply with a subpoena immediately,' Edwards added. 'We could solve this problem so quickly, if people actually want to solve problems.'
Edwards said doing so would provide answers quickly and give the victims some closure.
'Nobody would have to guess. There wouldn't need to be a lawsuit. There wouldn't have to wait to be discovery. You would immediately have the answers. You could flip to the page: Is there a letter? Is there not a letter? It's over. The victims then get to move on.'
Edwards said he expects the birthday book would provide answers to many questions about Epstein, including, 'Who were Jeffrey Epstein's best friends at the time? What letters did his family write to him? What other pictures were in there? Things of that nature.'
'Redact victim names, release the book and move on,' Edwards said.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) joined the MSNBC program shortly after Edwards's interview and said he didn't know the book was in the estate's possession and indicated he plans to move forward with issuing a subpoena.
'It is a revelation to me that he said that that birthday book is with private lawyers in the Epstein estate,' Khanna said in the interview, describing Edwards's comments as a 'bombshell revelation.'
Khanna noted that the House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee on Wednesday approved several subpoenas, including one directing DOJ to turn over materials relating to the Epstein files, but Khanna said he wasn't confident the subpoena would yield results.
'We subpoenaed the Epstein files, but that's a hard thing to do to get the Department of Justice to cooperate in releasing those files,' Khanna said. 'What's not hard to do is to subpoena private attorneys in a private estate and to get compliance.'
Khanna said he plans to invite Edwards to meet with the Oversight Committee to discuss the issue further, adding, 'And I think we can easily move forward on this subpoena of that birthday book, which could really advance this case.'
The Wall Street Journal reported last week that the book includes a letter from Trump with several lines of text 'framed by the outline of a naked woman.'
The letter, according to the Journal, ends, 'Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.'
Trump denies having written the letter, which he called 'a fake thing,' and has filed a defamation lawsuit against the newspaper.
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