White House says Democrats are ‘concocting hoax’ with Epstein investigation
More than 20 minutes into the briefing, Karoline Leavitt is addressing some of the first questions related to the Epstein investigation.
Leavitt says that Democrats “could have cared about those victims four years ago when Joe Biden was in office, they could have pushed for transparency” but they are using victims of Epstein’s abuse as “political pawns to try to smear and to push a hoax” against the president.
Leavitt adds that she has seen “forensic analysts” argue that the signature on the note to Epstein was not his. “The president did not write this letter. He did not sign this letter,” she said.
Key events
White House asks Congress to extend funding to avoid federal shutdown until January
The White House has asked congress to pass legislation that would extend current federal funding until 31 January, avoiding a partial government shutdown that would otherwise begin on 1 October.
“Today’s request from President Trump and Russ Vought to kick the can down the road on government funding until 31 January makes it clear the White House wants to be able to continue stealing from American communities for another four months,” said Democratic congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, who also serves as the ranking member of the House Appropriations committee.
Republican Steve Scalise, the House majority leader, said the White House’s request was a “suggestion” when speaking to reporters on Capitol hill on Tuesday. “We’re still working on the dates and how long it would extend, but that hasn’t been finalized yet.”
To keep the government funded beyond September, congress would need to pass what’s known as a “continuing resolution” – which would require at least seven Democratic senators to join the chamber’s Republican majority and advance the legislation.
Chris Stein
At the Capitol, top Republicans have joined the White House in alleging that it is not actually Donald Trump’s signature on a suggestive poem and drawing addressed to Jeffrey Epstein that was made public on Monday.
“The White House says it’s not true,” House speaker Mike Johnson told PBS News, adding that he has not seen the artwork from Epstein’s birthday book, which was released by Democrats on the House oversight committee.
The committee’s Republican chair James Comer has been leading an investigation into Epstein and the government’s handling of allegations of sex trafficking against him. Epstein died while awaiting trial on those charges in 2019, in what the justice department said was a suicide.
However, Comer says that he does not plan to investigate the veracity of Trump’s signature on the document.
“Twenty-two years ago was when that was allegedly sent. So, I don’t think the oversight committee is going to invest in looking up something that was 22 years ago,” he told CNN.
Republican congressman and oversight committee member Tim Burchett also doubted that Trump had made the drawing and signed it – even though Trump has a history of making sketches.
“I’ve never known Trump to be much of an artist,” he told CNN, adding that it was “so easy” to forge a signature.
White House defends supreme court decision to allow immigration raids to continue
Leavitt said in today’s press briefing that the ruling from the supreme court, which would allow immigration raids in Los Angeles to continue, is not indiscriminate profiling – which several critics have expressed.
“Reasonable suspicion is not just based on race, it’s based on a totality of the circumstances to review,” Leavitt said. “When Ice goes out to conduct a targeted operation to deport illegal criminals from our community, they are doing so with intelligence. They are doing so with law enforcement sources. They are doing so in most cases, with the backing of local law enforcement.”
White House offers muddled justification for ‘hoax’ claims following release of Epstein ‘birthday book’ documents
The press secretary has just offered a muddled message about what the White House considers to be a “hoax” when it comes to the Epstein investigation.
Leavitt initially said that the administration doesn’t believe the documents are a hoax, but rather the “the entire narrative surrounding Jeffrey Epstein right now, that is absorbing many of the liberal cable channels on television, is a hoax that is being perpetuated by opportunistic Democrats.”
But when pushed about the White House claims that Trump didn’t sign either the birthday note or novelty check – all documents provided by the Epstein estate – Leavitt seemed to suggest these were forged.
“The president has one of the most famous signatures in the world, and he has for many, many years,” she said. “He did not sign those documents. He maintains that position, and that position will be argued in court by his lawyers. The President is very confident he’s going to win this case.”
Karoline Leavitt just said the president didn’t sign a check that is pictured in Epstein’s “birthday book”.
The picture shows Epstein posting with a $22,000 novelty check – apparently signed by Donald Trump – “for a fully depreciated woman”.
Karoline Leavitt, notably, did not confirm that Israel informed the US about the strike in Doha. “What I can tell you is the United States military informed the Trump administration,” she said.
White House says Democrats are ‘concocting hoax’ with Epstein investigation
More than 20 minutes into the briefing, Karoline Leavitt is addressing some of the first questions related to the Epstein investigation.
Leavitt says that Democrats “could have cared about those victims four years ago when Joe Biden was in office, they could have pushed for transparency” but they are using victims of Epstein’s abuse as “political pawns to try to smear and to push a hoax” against the president.
Leavitt adds that she has seen “forensic analysts” argue that the signature on the note to Epstein was not his. “The president did not write this letter. He did not sign this letter,” she said.
Leavitt says that White House feels ‘very badly’ about location of Israeli strike in Qatar
Leavitt reads a statement from the White House, which says that the administration “feels very badly about the location” of today’s attack by Isreal in Doha, targeting Hamas leaders.
She added:
President Trump believes this unfortunate incident could serve as an opportunity for peace. The President also spoke to the Emir and prime minister of Qatar and thanked them for their support and friendship to our country. He assured them that such a thing will not happen again on their soil.
A reminder, that my colleague, Lucy Campbell, is covering the latest developments in the Middle East. You can follow along below.
White House doesn’t address Trump’s alleged note in Epstein ‘birthday book’ as briefing begins
Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, didn’t mention or address the president’s alleged contribution to Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th birthday scrapbook in her opening monologue in today’s briefing.
Instead, she began her briefing calling out the press for failing to cover the murder of Iryna Zarutska on a train in Charlotte, North Carolina. The 23-year-old, who fled the war in Ukraine, was stabbed by a man with a long criminal record, and a history of mental illness.
Leavitt used her opening remarks to advocate the administration’s stance for harsher sentences.
A short while ago, border czar Tom Homan spoke with reporters outside the White House.
He claimed that undocumented immigrants with no criminal history, who are fearful of being arrested by immigration enforcement in DC, aren’t the specific target of raids. “We’re prioritizing public safety, and addressing national security threats,” he said. “Now, if we run into a non-criminal during these operations, they’re going to be taken into custody, because we’re not going to do what the Biden administration did, and tell Ice you can’t enforce immigration law.”
When asked whether Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) officers should be required to identify themselves, Homan said “they do,” despite several videos showing masked agents arresting immigrants.
Homan argued that federal law enforcement from various agencies all have “patches” on their tactical gear, and show their credentials to people they are apprehending. “Now, if they’re surrounded by a bunch of people who propose danger – safety first. But guaranteed when someone’s arrested and put in detention they know who arrests them, and that person identifies themselves.”
White House press briefing starting shortly
The White House press briefing with Karoline Leavitt is due to start shortly amid the furore over Trump’s alleged birthday note to Epstein. We will bring you all the key lines here and there will be a live feed at the top of the blog.
The day so far
Here’s a quick recap of the day’s events so far:
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A scrapbook for Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th birthday released yesterday contains a photo of him holding a novelty check bearing Donald Trump’s signature, along with a note suggesting Epstein “sold” him a woman for $22,500, shedding further light on the longtime relationship between the president and the convicted sex offender.
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An image of a sexually suggestive letter and drawing that appears to bear Trump’s signature – the very same note the president had denied writing after reports of its existence were published earlier this year in the Wall Street Journal – was also released yesterday. Inside the sketch of a woman’s torso, the note depicts an imagined conversation between Trump and Epstein, with what appeared to be Trump’s signature below. One House Democrat described the letter as “sickening”.
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Trump has called the release of the Epstein “birthday book” a “dead issue”, while Maga loyalists have amplified claims that the alleged note written by the president to Epstein for the scrapbook is “fake”. Here’s a roundup of who’s in the birthday book and what they said.
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Elsewhere, immigration advocates have warned that the supreme court has “effectively legalized racial profiling”, granting federal agents the power to stop people in Los Angeles simply for speaking Spanish or appearing Latino – and opening the door, they say, to a broader unraveling of civil rights protections nationwide. US immigration officers are already ramping up immigration sweeps in Los Angeles again, spurred on by the supreme court’s reversal yesterday of the ban on stopping people solely based on their race, language or job.
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The Bureau of Labor Statistics issued a revision today, which says that job growth was overestimated between April 2024 and March 2025. There were actually 911,000 fewer jobs, according to the report. This comes after Trump claimed, baselessly, that job report numbers were being rigged, and fired commissioner Erika McEntarfer.
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The Department of Justice is in talks with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), housed within the Department of Homeland Security, about transferring the sensitive voter roll data it has collected from states for use in criminal and immigration-related investigations, according to a report from Reuters.
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A state district court judge in Michigan ruled today that 15 “fake electors” will not face a criminal trial for their efforts to overturn and undermine the 2020 election.
Trump calls release of suggestive note to Epstein a ‘dead issue’
Joseph Gedeon
Donald Trump has described as a “dead issue” the release of the convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein’s tome of often highly sexualized 50th birthday messages that includes a suggestive note apparently penned by the president.
The letter, which has been reported before but on Monday was released by Democrats on the House oversight committee after receiving it from the Epstein estate, shows the outline of a woman’s body around an imagined conversation between Epstein and Trump. It is signed “Donald” in between the silhoutte’s legs.
Trump and Epstein were close friends for the better part of 15 years until falling out, allegedly over a real estate deal.
Trump called the letter “fake” and filed a $10bn defamation lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the existence of the document.
Michigan judge rules that 15 fake electors will not face criminal trial
A state district court judge in Michigan ruled today that 15 “fake electors” will not face a criminal trial for their efforts to overturn and undermine the 2020 election.
The defendants were Republicans who signed documents which said that Donald Trump won the state in 2020, despite Joe Biden’s victory.
Michigan attorney general Dana Nessel charged the electors on several counts of forgery and conspiracy to commit election forgery. However, Judge Kristen D Simmons said that the group genuinely believed there were problems with the election and were attempting to seek redress. Ultimately, Simmons took issue with the prosecution’s ability to prove intent, and rejected claims that the electors understood their duties well enough.
Photo of novelty check suggests Epstein ‘sold’ Trump a woman for $22,500
Ramon Antonio Vargas
A scrapbook for Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th birthday released on Monday contains a photo of him holding a novelty check bearing Donald Trump’s signature, along with a note suggesting Epstein “sold” him a woman for $22,500, shedding further light on the longtime relationship between the president and the convicted sex offender.
The photo shows Epstein and Joel Pashcow, a longtime member of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, and a third figure, apparently a woman, whose face is redacted in the image, which was shared on social media by Democrats on the House oversight committee. The caption, apparently from Paschow, reads: “Jeffrey showing early talents with money + women! Sells ‘fully depreciated’ [redaction] to Donald Trump for $22,500.”
Epstein “showed early ‘people skills’ too”, the caption continued. “Even though I handled the deal I didn’t get any of the money on the girl!”
The check is signed “DJ Trump” in a style that differs from most of his signatures at the time.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the woman was someone whom Epstein and the now two-time US president “socialized with” in the 1990s. The woman’s lawyer told the newspaper that she cut ties with Epstein around 1997 and had no romantic relationship with either Epstein or Trump, does not know Pashcow, and had no knowledge of the letter, which she called a “disgusting and deeply disturbing hoax”.
Bureau of Labor Statistics says job figures were overestimated by 911,000
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) issued a revision today, which says that job growth was overestimated between April 2024 and March 2025.
There were actually 911,000 fewer jobs, according to the report. This comes after Donald Trump claimed, baselessly, that job report numbers were being rigged, and fired commissioner Erika McEntarfer. The revision, known as “benchmarking” is a standard, annual process from BLS.
It’s notably not a correction, but an update using more comprehensive data collated throughout the year.
The new figures, however, suggest that the job market might be weaker than expected, and Trump is expected to use today’s revision as fuel for further criticism of the BLS.
Maga loyalists push claims that Trump ‘birthday note’ to Epstein is ‘fake’
Several allies of Donald Trump, also prominent Maga figures, have amplified claims that the alleged note written by the president to Jeffrey Epstein for his 50th birthday scrapbook is “fake”.
Charlie Kirk, the podcast host and founder of the right-wing non-proft Turning Point USA, said the signature on the note didn’t look like Trump’s “at all”.
Meanwhile, administration officials toed the line. White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said on X yesterday that the scanned picture was “FAKE NEWS to perpetuate the Democrat Epstein Hoax!”
Laura Loomer, the conspiracy theorist who has bragged about having the president’s ear, called the Wall Street Journal’s original reporting on the note “a fake story”.
On Capitol Hill, the president’s allies in congress criticised Democrats on the Hill following the release of the birthday album’s pages, after the House oversight committee subpoenaed Epstein’s estate.
“President Trump is not accused of any wrongdoing and Democrats are ignoring the new information the Committee received today,” congressman James Comer, Republican chair of the committee wrote on social media. “It’s appalling Democrats on the Oversight Committee are cherry-picking documents and politicizing information received from the Epstein Estate today.”
Sam Levine
Three leading scholars of election law are starting a new project at New York University, focused on studying public confidence in government and political polarization, according to details first shared with the Guardian.
The effort announced on Tuesday, called the Democracy Project, will be led by NYU law professors Richard Pildes, Samuel Issacharoff, and Bob Bauer (Bauer served as Joe Biden’s personal attorney and Barack Obama’s White House counsel). It will bring together experts with a wide range of ideological and political backgrounds to discuss what reforms could look like.
“Dissatisfaction with democratic government has been pervasive for the last decade throughout the West. Our aim in launching the Democracy Project is to analyze the sources of this phenomenon along many dimensions and across national boundaries, as well as identify the most promising ways to meet this challenge,” Pildes, Issacharoff, and Bauer said in a joint statement.
The effort comes as vast numbers of Americans are concerned about the state of democracy. A June NPR/Marist poll found that 76% of Americans felt democracy was under serious threat. Seventy-three per cent of Americans also see politically motivated violence as a major problem.
The project is launching with an essay series on democracy issues that will launch daily over the next 100 days. Those set to contribute to the series include former Texas solicitor general Jonathan Mitchell, former Montana governor Steve Bullock, former Justice on UK supreme court Lord Jonathan Sumption, former South Africa supreme court Justice Catherine O’Regan, and businessman Mark Cuban.
Justice department considering handing over voter roll data to homeland security – report
The Department of Justice is in talks with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), housed within the Department of Homeland Security, about transferring the sensitive voter roll data it has collected from states for use in criminal and immigration-related investigations, according to a report from Reuters.
The voter registration data was gathered over the last several months by the DoJ’s civil rights division, which has sent requests for voter registration-related information to at least 24 states, per Reuters.
The report cites government records, which show that HSI plans to run the voter roll data against other information in its law enforcement databases for use in criminal and immigration investigations. Legal experts who spoke with Reuters said sharing such data raises privacy concerns.
Donald Trump has routinely claimed, without evidence, that there is large scale fraud within the US election system, and swathes of non-citizens are casting votes.
