Bill Clinton’s name writ large in birthday book for abuser Jeffrey Epstein

The biggest name in Jeffrey Epstein’s birthday book back in 2003 was a past US president rather than a future one, who was among about five dozen people who sent messages.

Bill Clinton, Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, who was keen for Mr Clinton and other high-profile friends to submit letters for Epstein’s birthday book. Pictures: Getty Images

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 high-profile friends 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 Mr 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 about 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.

The letter bearing Mr 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. Mr Trump called the letter “a fake thing”.

The professionally bound birthday book had multiple volumes and included a table of contents that listed the contributions, organised into groups. While many letter writers weren’t famous, some categories had notable people.

Ghislaine Maxwell watches as Jeffrey Epstein and Bill Clinton shake hands. Picture: William J. Clinton Presidential Library

Mr Clinton and Mr Trump were listed under the “Friends” group, along with about 20 other associates such as Mr Black, Mr Zuckerman, former Victoria’s Secret leader Leslie Wexner, lawyer Alan Dershowitz, and the late Jean-Luc Brunel, who ran a modelling agency. Zuckerman didn’t respond to requests for comment.

A “Business” group included the late Alan Greenberg and the late James 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”. Some of the messages were anodyne birthday wishes, but others were bawdy and made crude jokes about sex.

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. It was followed by photos of a monkey screaming, lions and zebras mating, and a zebra with its penis visible.

A spokeswoman for Mr Myhrvold said he did not recall the submission and that he was a wildlife photographer who “regularly shares photos of and writes about animal behaviour”. The spokeswoman said Mr Myhrvold only knew Epstein because he attended TED conferences and was a donor to scientific research.

The submission with Mr 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.”

The Wall Street Journal