Vance claims 'bulls---' on WSJ report alleging Trump birthday note to Epstein
Vice President Vance slammed what he called a "complete and utter bulls---" article from The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday about a "bawdy" birthday note President Trump allegedly wrote to former acquaintance Jeffrey Epstein in 2003.
"Forgive my language but this story is complete and utter bulls---," Vance wrote on the X social media platform Thursday night. "Does anyone honestly believe this sounds like Donald Trump?"
The president has vowed to sue the Rupert Murdoch-owned Journal over the article, which describes a birthday letter that Trump supposedly wrote to be included in a leather-bound book marking the disgraced financier's 50th birthday in 2003. Epstein, who had hobnobbed in elite circles in New York City and Palm Beach, Fla., and was a known associate of Trump in the 1990s and early 2000s, died by suicide in a federal prison in 2019 while awaiting federal charges for allegedly sex trafficking minors.
Vance, who was briefly an Ohio senator and journalist while serving in the Marine Corps, has in the past denounced some of Trump's coarse language and questioned the government's official narrative around the Epstein case.
Vance claimed Thursday that the Journal never "showed [the Epstein birthday letter] to us before publishing" the article.
"Doesn’t it violate some rule of journalistic ethics to publish a letter like this without showing it to the victim of this hit piece?" Vance wrote on X. "Will the people who have bought into every hoax against President Trump show an ounce of skepticism before buying into this bizarre story?"
The Journal reported that the Epstein birthday message, which appears to bear Trump's signature, was typed inside the outline of an apparently nude, hand-drawn woman.
"A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret," the final line of a typed poem on the page read, per the Journal's reporting.
Trump has repeatedly denied close connections with the convicted sex offender, and both had said they had a falling out in the early 2000s.
Furor over the Epstein case reached a fever pitch this week, though, when Trump told followers to stop paying attention to Epstein's case and accused his supporters of being duped by left-wing narratives.
"If there was a 'smoking gun' on Epstein, why didn’t the Dems, who controlled the 'files' for four years, and had [former Attorney General Merrick] Garland and [ex-prosecutor Maureen] Comey in charge, use it,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Thursday. "BECAUSE THEY HAD NOTHING!!!"