Republicans in the House of Representatives would rather not talk about the “bawdy” birthday note that President Donald Trump supposedly sent to Jeffrey Epstein for his 50th birthday party.
The House Oversight Committee had released many of the documents related to the late convicted sex offender regarding his trafficking of girls and young women. But some of the members of the committee don’t want to talk about the card that Trump is alleged to have signed and sent.
“I am so goddamn sick of being asked about a f*****g birthday card,” Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) told The Independent on Tuesday.
“Give me a break. What about the women who’ve been fighting for justice for 30 years and still don’t have it? How does writing about a birthday card do anything to get them justice? It doesn’t.”
Mace is one of only three Republicans who co-signed a discharge petition to release files related to Epstein. She did so after she met with victims of Epstein who visited Capitol Hill last week and was moved to tears.
Mace, who is running for governor of South Carolina — and who could use Trump’s endorsement to win the primary — has been careful not to say the president was at fault for any of Epstein’s wrongdoing.
“Donald Trump is the one who banned Jeffrey Epstein from Mar-a-Lago,” she told The Independent last week. “He was an FBI informant, and he talked to the feds to get this guy turned over. So Donald Trump is a hero in this.”
Later, House Speaker Mike Johnson would repeat that Trump was an informant, though little to no evidence exists that this was the case and the White House has said Johnson misspoke. Johnson would later clarify his remarks.
Republicans have sought to balance the anger that their base has felt at the lack of transparency surrounding Epstein’s operations, subsequent arrest and his eventual death. In July, the Justice Department and FBI released a two-page memo saying no “client list” of Epstein’s patrons existed and that the disgraced financier who long escaped justice likely killed himself in his prison cell.
President Donald Trump has also called the investigation a “hoax” by Democrats, even though survivors of Epstein’s came to Capitol Hill asking for the files to be released. Trump also denied reports from The Wall Street Journal that he sent a note to Epstein that featured a doodle of a woman’s naked body that featured his signature mimicking a woman’s pubic hair.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) focused on another one of Epstein’s famous friends who occupied the White House.
“I also saw a very interesting one from Bill Clinton,” she told The Independent. “But I know the White House has been refuting that with the signatures, and it looks like the signatures don’t match.”
The committee published a note Clinton sent in the infamous “birthday book” on Monday. The note remarked on Epstein’s “childlike curiosity.”
Rep. Ralph Norman, who is running against Mace in the Republican primary for governor, said he had not seen it.
“I have not,” he told The Independent. “I’m sure the president will report on it.”
Fellow House Freedom Caucus member Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona said he wanted to see more.
“I haven’t been able to see all of them yet,” he told The Independent. When asked about the supposed Trump card, he said “that’s primarily what I want to see.”
After the story initially published in July, Trump sued The Wall Street Journal, the paper’s parent company News Corps and its owner Ruper Murdoch for defamation.
“I would say that the White House has gone forward and President Trump has a defamation case currently alleging that that card is not real, and I’m inclined to believe that he’s not, you know, playing to lose that case,” Luna said.
Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson have opposed efforts from Khanna and Massie to release the files. The petition needs a majority of members to sign to receive a floor vote. Along with Massie and Mace, only two Republicans–Reps. Lauren Bobert of Colorado and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia–have co-signed while almost every Democrat has signed the petition.
House Oversight Committee Chairman told The Independent he planned to focus on financial transactions.
“Those aren’t important items of evidence,” Comer said of the notes from Trump and Clinton. “None of the women have implicated with Trump or Clinton.”
Comer said that Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s former partner and longtime associate, told Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche that she never saw Trump do anything inappropriate.
But the investigation is unlikely to go away for the time being.
“They’re clearly lying,” Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, told The Independent, calling Republicans’ behavior “shameful.”
On Tuesday, Virginia will hold a special election for the late Rep. Gerry Connolly’s old seat that will likely be filled by a Democrat, most assuredly giving the discharge petition another signature. Later in the month, Arizona will hold another special election to fill the seat of the late Raúl Grijalva, which will notch another signature.
