Texas Rep Jasmine Crockett is not buying Donald Trump’s latest excuse. The congresswoman laughed off the president’s denial over a bizarre birthday doodle tied to Jeffrey Epstein, calling his defense “crazy” and raising new questions about Trump’s honesty.
The controversy started when Epstein’s estate handed over documents to the House Oversight Committee. Among them was a doodle allegedly drawn by Trump himself for Epstein’s 50th birthday back in 2003. The sketch, signed with what looks like Trump’s signature, was part of a leather-bound book put together by Epstein’s longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell.
This wasn’t news to Trump’s team. When the Wall Street Journal first reported on the note in July, Trump and his press secretary Karoline Leavitt immediately lashed out, labeling it “FAKE NEWS.” Trump himself wrote, “yet another example of FAKE NEWS!” on social media. But now that the committee has the document in hand, the denials are becoming harder to sustain.
Crockett appeared on CNN’s The Source with host Kaitlan Collins, who asked her what she made of the White House’s defense. The Texas Democrat didn’t hold back.
“The fact that the President is a liar? He’s consistent. I mean, that’s all I really got for you,” Crockett said, laughing.
She pointed out that the note came directly from Epstein’s estate, not from Trump’s political enemies. “We got this from the Epstein estate. This isn’t something that came from a random Democratic something; this came from the estate,” she explained.
To Crockett, the idea that Democrats somehow manufactured the letter years in advance made no sense. “Like it before he even got elected. Remember when Epstein died, right? That was before Donald Trump got elected this time. And they would have had to have some kind of foresight that he was going to run for office again, somehow win again. And we’ve got to make sure that this is sitting here so that when a committee comes through to get this. It’s crazy.”
Crockett stressed that while the doodle itself doesn’t prove Trump committed a crime, it adds to a troubling pattern. “I think the biggest issue is the fact that he cannot be honest about it, right? Like, why lie? Because it doesn’t implicate right? But the fact that you’re lying makes it look like, ‘what else are you lying about?’ Those are the questions that we have.”
She went further, linking the dishonesty to broader accusations. “If you’ll lie about something this simple, then when you’re trying to tell us that you had nothing to do with these women or these girls, why should we believe you?”
The Oversight Committee subpoenaed Epstein’s estate in August, demanding documents about how the U.S. government initially handled Epstein’s case. Along with the doodle, the estate provided another document: a photo of Epstein holding an oversized check with Trump’s name on it.
According to the committee, the photo shows “a longtime Mar-a-Lago member joking about selling a ‘fully depreciated’ woman to Donald Trump for $22,500.”
Crockett didn’t mince words. “I think that is more incriminating than the birthday. The birthday just makes him look like a creep. But this, it’s joking about selling a woman. When, and why is that ever funny?”
As of now, the White House hasn’t responded to Crockett’s remarks.