Just hours after releasing an image of a damning letter between Jeffrey Epstein and disgraced USA gymnastics coach Larry Nassar, The Department of Justice is now claiming that the letter is a fake.
“The FBI has confirmed this alleged letter from Jeffrey Epstein to Larry Nassar is FAKE. The fake letter was received by the jail, and flagged for the FBI at the time,” The Department of Justice wrote on X, laying out several “facts” to back up the claim.
The FBI has confirmed this alleged letter from Jeffrey Epstein to Larry Nassar is FAKE. The fake letter was received by the jail, and flagged for the FBI at the time. The FBI made this conclusion based on the following facts:
-The writing does not appear to match Jeffrey…
— U.S. Department of Justice (@TheJusticeDept) December 23, 2025
The Justice Department’s release includes tens of thousands of pages of investigative material related to Epstein’s activities and associations. Among them is the handwritten letter, dated August 2019, that appears to have been sent from Epstein to Nassar while Epstein was in custody.
The handwritten note, addressed to “L.N.,” begins “As you know by now, I have taken the ‘short route’ home,” possibly referring to Epstein’s reported suicide. It also references “our president,” widely interpreted as Trump, claiming he shared “our love of young, nubile girls.” The letter also states, “When a young beauty walked by, he loved to ‘grab snatch,'” possibly a reference to Trump’s infamous “grab ’em by the pussy” remark made in 2005.
The letter was discovered weeks after Epstein died in federal custody and was postmarked August 13, 2019, three days after his death, which authorities controversially ruled a suicide. The Associated Press reported on the existence of the letter in 2023. An FBI request for handwriting analysis of the letter was included in the documents. Still, the results have not been made public, and it remains unclear whether Epstein actually wrote the note.
It was reportedly returned to sender and later found in the mailroom of the Metropolitan Correctional Center. The documents also include references to flight records from Epstein’s private jet showing Trump as a passenger at least eight times during the 1990s, including a flight with an unnamed 20-year-old.
Nassar is currently serving multiple long prison sentences that add up to life imprisonment after being convicted of sexually abusing hundreds of young athletes under the guise of medical treatment, including members of the U.S. Olympic gymnastics team. He received up to 235 years in prison on combined federal and state charges.
The newly disclosed material also includes a 2021 subpoena issued to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort seeking records related to the investigation of Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s longtime associate and convicted conspirator. Emails and internal DOJ discussions that touch on Trump have been released as well.
Details from U.S. attorneys’ notes and investigative correspondence highlight references to Trump’s earlier interactions with Epstein, flight records, and tips received by the FBI about Trump’s presence at parties or social gatherings where Epstein was present.
The DOJ issued a statement accompanying the release, warning that some of the material makes “untrue and sensationalist claims” about the president that were submitted to the FBI before the 2020 election and are not corroborated. The department stressed that if such allegations had credibility, they “certainly would have been weaponized against President Trump already.”
The release of these files follows the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which passed both chambers of Congress with overwhelming support and was signed into law on November 19, 2025. It required the Justice Department to make publicly available all unclassified documents and records in the department’s possession relating to Epstein, Maxwell, and others connected to the investigations.
The partial release has already drawn bipartisan criticism from lawmakers. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called the partial release a “blatant disregard for the law.” Democratic Representative Ro Khanna of California and Republican Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky are exploring additional measures, such as contempt proceedings against Attorney General Pam Bondi.
