US justice officials have said a document purporting to show convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein wrote to disgraced former gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar, including a crude reference to President Donald Trump, is a fake, hours after the material was released as part of a new tranche of Epstein-related files.
The Department of Justice said the FBI had concluded the writing did not appear to match Epstein’s, and pointed to anomalies in the mailing details that it said undermined its authenticity, including that it was postmarked three days after Epstein died in a New York jail in August 2019, and appeared to have been processed in Northern Virginia rather than New York, where he was being held.
In a statement quoted by Reuters, the department said: “This fake letter serves as a reminder that just because a document is released by the Department of Justice does not make the allegations or claims within the document factual. Nevertheless, the DOJ will continue to release all material required by law.”
The document in question was described by Reuters as a card featuring an image of a couple holding hands across a table, with a handwritten message that included the line that “our president also shares our love of young, nubile girls.” Reuters reported it also contained the line: “As you know by now, I have taken the ‘short route’ home,” which the news agency said could be read as an allusion to suicide.
The disclosure came amid continuing public and political scrutiny of the federal government’s handling of records connected to Epstein, a wealthy financier whose social circle included prominent figures across politics, business and entertainment before he was arrested in 2019 on federal sex-trafficking charges. Epstein was found dead in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan on 10 August 2019. Authorities ruled his death a suicide.
Reuters said the government obtained the handwritten card after it was returned to the federal detention centre in New York as undeliverable following Epstein’s death. The agency reported that the Associated Press had previously reported, in 2023, that a card addressed from Epstein to Nassar had been returned to the New York jail and found in the facility’s mailroom after Epstein died, and that it was unclear whether the two men had any previous relationship.
The Justice Department’s statement sought to draw a distinction between the legal requirement to publish certain investigative materials and the accuracy of any particular item contained within them, while emphasising that it would continue to release what it said the law required. Reuters reported that Congress passed, and Trump signed, a law last month requiring the Justice Department to make its Epstein files public, and that the large batch of documents released early this week followed disclosures late last week, with more expected.
The emergence of the alleged message has renewed attention on Trump’s past social interactions with Epstein, which have been the subject of reporting and political debate for years. Reuters reported that there have been no allegations in the Justice Department’s disclosures of Epstein’s files that Trump committed any crime.
The purported card’s focus on Nassar also brought renewed attention to one of the most notorious sexual abuse cases in American sport. Nassar, a former doctor for USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University, is serving multiple lengthy sentences after being convicted on federal child pornography charges and state charges related to the sexual abuse of gymnasts and other patients. Reuters reported that Nassar was sentenced in 2017 to 60 years in federal prison for possessing child sex abuse material, and in 2018 received two Michigan sentences totalling up to 300 years for molesting gymnasts under his care.
The Justice Department’s assessment that the document was fake turned in part on the mailing details, Reuters said. The department said the envelope lacked Epstein’s inmate number, which it said was required for outgoing mail, and that the return address incorrectly identified the jail where Epstein was being held. Reuters reported that the postmark indicated the item was processed three days after Epstein’s death, which would place it outside the window in which he could have sent it from custody.
The episode underscored the volume and complexity of the material now being released, and the challenges of interpreting documents that may include unverified allegations, correspondence and investigative records. For families of victims, and for those following the case, the release of additional files has long been a flashpoint, with advocates arguing that transparency is needed to understand who enabled Epstein’s crimes and how networks of abuse operated, while others warn that partial or misinterpreted disclosures can fuel misinformation.
Epstein had previously been convicted in Florida in 2008 on prostitution-related offences after an investigation into allegations he paid underage girls for sexual acts, serving a jail term and registering as a sex offender. In 2019 he was arrested again, this time on federal charges, after prosecutors in New York alleged he operated a sex-trafficking scheme involving minors. He pleaded not guilty. The case ended with his death, though legal proceedings continued against associates, including his former partner Ghislaine Maxwell, who was later convicted of sex trafficking and related offences.
For Nassar’s victims, the former doctor’s downfall followed years in which accusations were not acted upon, prompting multiple investigations into institutional failures at sporting bodies and universities. His 2018 sentencing hearing in Michigan became a landmark moment in public testimony by survivors, many of whom described years of abuse under the guise of medical treatment.
The purported Epstein-to-Nassar message, as described by Reuters, was both provocative and crude, and its circulation quickly drew attention online because of its reference to Trump and because of its timing in relation to the ongoing release of Epstein files. The Justice Department’s move to label it a fake the same day it entered public view appeared aimed at preventing the contents from being treated as established fact.
Reuters reported that one of Nassar’s former lawyers, Shannon Smith, declined to comment, and another former lawyer, Matthew Newburg, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Justice Department has not, in the Reuters report, suggested who authored the item or how it came to be sent. But by citing handwriting discrepancies and the postmark, the department positioned the document as an example of the kinds of material that can surface in large investigative files, particularly when they contain items gathered from a range of sources over years.
The broader release of Epstein-related material is expected to continue. As additional documents emerge, officials have indicated that publication alone should not be taken as validation of any claim contained within them, while emphasising compliance with the law that now compels disclosure.
