White House denies president signed letter to disgraced financier

White House officials yesterday doubled down on their assertion that a sexually suggestive letter carrying what appeared to be Donald Trump's signature that was included in a birthday book for the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein had not been signed by the president.

- Hugo Lowell Joseph Gedeon Washington

The letter, and its drawing of a naked woman's torso around an imagined conversation between Trump and Epstein, was part of a batch of documents released by the House oversight committee in response to a subpoena after its existence was first reported in July by the Wall Street Journal.

The release of the letter and the entirety of the birthday book only intensified a furore that Trump has been attempting to shut down for months - and hardened the White House's resolve to claim the purported Trump signature on the letter was a fabrication or a forgery.

At a press briefing, Trump's press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, denied Trump's involvement in the letter and added that the White House would support an expert review of the signature to determine whether it had been done by Trump's hand.