The Department of Justice said on Tuesday afternoon that a disturbing letter released as part of the Epstein files and appearing to be from the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to convicted sex abuser and former Olympic gymnastics coach Larry Nassar is a fake.
The contents of the purported letter dated 2019 were released by the DoJ early on Tuesday and had appeared to have been written by Epstein to Nassar and discussed a love of “young ladies”.
Nassar was the US Olympics gymnastics team doctor and was convicted in 2017 and 2018 of multiple crimes related to sexual abuse.
The letter, now exposed as a fake, said: “As you will know by now, I have taken the ‘short route’ home,” the letter, which appears to have been signed from Epstein to Nassar, reads. “Good luck! We shared one thing … our love & caring for young ladies and the hope they reach their full potential.”
It continued: “Our president also shares our love of young, nubile girls. When a young beauty walked by he loved to ‘grab snatch’, whereas we ended up snatching grub in the mess halls of the system.”
The letter was signed: “Life is unfair. Yours, J. Epstein.”
On Tuesday afternoon the DoJ posted on X: “The FBI has confirmed this alleged letter from Jeffrey Epstein to Larry Nassar is FAKE.”
The post went on to list why the letter was not deemed genuine by the authorities and added: “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.”
Donald Trump, who was president at the time the supposed letter from Epstein was apparently sent, has repeatedly denied any knowledge of or involvement in Epstein’s criminal activities and any wrongdoing.
The existence of the letter was first reported in 2023 by the Associated Press after it was discovered in the midst of more than 4,000 pages of documents held by the Bureau of Prisons.
The letter is postmarked 13 August 2019, notably three days after Epstein died in custody in what was ruled a suicide. It was found by investigators in the jail mail room weeks later after it was returned from a prison in Arizona and marked “no longer at this address”.
“It appeared he mailed it out and it was returned back to him,” the investigator told a prison official in an email included in the documents. “I am not sure if I should open it or should we hand it over to anyone?
It is unclear if Epstein and Nassar had any relationship.
Nassar, the former doctor for the US gymnastics team and Michigan State University, is currently serving a 60-year federal sentence on charges of child sexual abuse images. He was also sentenced in 2018 to a 40-to-175 Michigan state sentence after pleading guilty to seven counts of criminal sexual conduct.
At trial, more than 150 women – including Olympic gold medalists Aly Raisman and McKayla Maroney – said he sexually abused them.
The document comes as questions continue to swirl around Epstein’s death in custody, with his brother, Mark Epstein, continuing to maintain that the sex offender was murdered in his cell.
It has also been suggested that Epstein blamed his former friend Donald Trump for his 2019 arrest on sex-trafficking charges, which came more than a decade after he was granted immunity from prosecution under a 2007 Florida state plea deal where he pleaded guilty to solicitation of a minor.
In a statement from the Department of Justice about the release of the latest tranche of Epstein-related documents, it said: “Some of these documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims made against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election. To be clear: the claims are unfounded and false, and if they had a shred of credibility, they certainly would have been weaponized against President Trump already. Nevertheless, out of our commitment to the law and transparency, the DOJ is releasing these documents with the legally required protections for Epstein’s victims.”
