A handwriting expert has said the signature on a controversial birthday message to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein is “absolutely” US President Donald Trump’s.
Graphologist Emma Bache compared the signature with others the president wrote at the time, and told Sky News: “It is very much the signature he had in the 2000s. I can absolutely say it is Donald Trump’s.”
Newly released files handed to the United States Congress appear to contain birthday messages to billionaire paedophile Epstein from both the US president and the current British ambassador to the US, Peter Mandelson.
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They include a hand-drawing of a woman’s body, signed “Donald”, a picture of Epstein holding an outsized cheque, signed by “DJTRUMP”, and a message appearing to show Lord Mandelson calling Epstein his “best pal”.
Addressing the release of the image in a post on X, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said: “As I have said all along, it’s very clear President Trump did not draw this picture, and he did not sign it.”
But Ms Bache was unequivocal.
“It’s incredibly distinctive. If we look at the way he has formed the ‘o’ of Donald, it’s actually a circle.
“He also has a very long horizontal stroke at the end of his name – which funnily enough is saying to people ‘keep away’ – and it’s absolutely identical in pressure, in length and formation of about every single stroke (to his current official signature).”
She said the capital ‘D’ of his name in the Epstein message, was also very distinctive and exactly the same as another letter written in 1996 and 2000.
The files were handed over following a demand by the Oversight Committee of the US Congress and are from a book compiled by Epstein’s co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, to celebrate his 50th birthday in 2003.
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The White House said the president’s legal team was “aggressively pursuing litigation”.
Ms Bache said she was “not surprised he would deny it”.
She added: “He has an awful lot to lose, but it doesn’t affect my analysis of it.”
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‘You will listen to me – I am right’
After examining a number of his signatures under a microscope, she concluded: “The idea that it could be forged would be almost impossible. I certainly wouldn’t be able to get anywhere close to Donald Trump’s handwriting.
“It’s a very confident, very speedy signature and when you forge something, you do it more slowly.”
She said his modern signature had changed a little but still had clear similarities.
She added: “His modern signature is all angles and in graphology, angles are about energy, aggression, there’s a tension there.
“There’s no softness and his communication style is one of ‘you will listen to me and I am right’.
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Ambassador’s denial
Lord Mandelson has also come under scrutiny for his relationship with Epstein – and the release of the files has compounded the issue.
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They appear to include a glowing contribution from the Labour grandee, with him calling Epstein his “best pal” and writing of the friend “taking you by surprise… in one of his glorious homes he likes to share with his friends (yum yum)”.
Lord Mandelson’s spokesman said he “very much regrets ever having been introduced to Epstein”.
