��������

WASHINGTON: Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released on Monday a sexually suggestive letter to Jeffrey Epstein purportedly signed by President Donald Trump, which he has denied.
The letter was included as part of a 50th birthday album compiled in 2003 for Epstein, a wealthy and well-connected financier who was once a friend of Trump’s. The full House committee on Monday night released a copy of the entire album, which bore names of some other prominent figures such as former President Bill Clinton and attorney Alan Dershowitz in a “friends” section, and included other letters with sexually provocative language.

Trump has said he did not write the letter or create the drawing of a curvaceous woman that surrounds the letter, and he filed a $10 billion lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal for earlier reporting on his link to the letter.

“As I have said all along, it’s very clear President Trump did not draw this picture, and he did not sign it,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement posted on X. “President Trump’s legal team will continue to aggressively pursue litigation.”
White House deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich posted various pictures on X of Trump’s signature over the years and wrote, “it’s not his signature.”
As House Republicans left the Capitol on Monday night, many waved off questions about the letter, echoing a similar theme.
“It’s not his signature. I’ve seen Donald Trump sign a million things,” said Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida.
Rep. Thomas Massie, who is leading a bipartisan push for a House vote to force the Justice Department to release its Epstein files, downplayed the letter’s relevance entirely.
“It doesn’t prove anything. Having a birthday card from Trump doesn’t help the survivors and the victims,” Massie said.
The release of the drawing comes as the president has for months faced increasing pressure to force more disclosure in the case of Epstein and his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell. Epstein was accused of paying underage girls hundreds of dollars in cash for massages and then molesting them, while Maxwell was convicted of luring teenage girls to be sexually abused by him.
It also once again puts a spotlight on Trump’s former friendship with Epstein, which the president has said ended two decades ago after a falling-out. Trump said recently that he cut ties with Epstein because he “stole” young women — including Virginia Giuffre, who was among Epstein’s most well-known sex trafficking accusers — who worked for the spa at his Mar-a-Lago resort.
The case against Epstein was brought more than a decade after he secretly cut a deal with federal prosecutors in Florida to dispose of nearly identical allegations. Trump had suggested during the presidential campaign that he’d seek to open the government’s files into Epstein, but much of what the government has released so far had already been out there.
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee received a copy of the birthday album on Monday as part of a batch of documents from Epstein’s estate.
Trump has denied writing the letter and creating the drawing, calling The Wall Street Journal report on it “false, malicious, and defamatory.”
“These are not my words, not the way I talk. Also, I don’t draw pictures,” Trump said.
The letter released by the committee looks exactly as described by The Wall Street Journal in its report.
The letter bearing Trump’s name and what appears to be his signature includes text framed by a hand-drawn outline of a curvaceous woman.
“A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret,” the letter says.
The letter’s disclosure comes amid a bipartisan push in Congress for the release of the so-called Epstein files amid years of speculation and conspiracy theories. Calls for the release of the records came from Republicans, including Vice President JD Vance, before he was sworn into the country’s No. 2 position.
The Justice Department in August began turning over records from the Epstein sex trafficking investigation to the House Oversight Committee.
The committee subpoenaed the Epstein estate for documents last month. In addition to the birthday book, lawmakers requested Epstein’s last will and testament, agreements he signed with prosecutors, his contact books, and his financial transactions and holdings.

KATMANDU: Nepal has lifted a social media ban following protests that resulted in the deaths of 19 people, a government minister said on Tuesday.
The government had rolled back the social media ban imposed last week, Cabinet spokesperson and Communications and Information Technology Minister Prithvi Subba Gurung said.
The decision came after 19 people were killed and more than 100 injured in the “Gen Z” protests on Monday against widespread corruption. The protests were triggered by the ban.
“We have withdrawn the shutdown of the social media. They are working now,” Gurung told Reuters.
Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli said he was saddened by the incidents of violence due to the “infiltration from different selfish centers”.
The government would pay relief for the families of the dead and provide free treatment for the injured persons, he added.
“An investigation panel will be set up to find out the causes, assess losses and suggest measures within 15 days to ensure that such incidents are not repeated in future,” Oli said in a late-night statement on Monday.
Organizers of the protests, which spread to other cities in the Himalayan country, have called them “demonstrations by Gen Z.” They say the protests reflect young people’s widespread frustration with the government’s perceived lack of action to tackle corruption and boost economic opportunities.
The government last week decided to block access to several social media platforms including Facebook, a decision that fueled anger among the young.
Officials say the shutdown was for those social media platforms which had failed to register with the government, amid a crackdown on fake IDs, misinformation and hate speech.