As President Donald J. Trump pushes for full transparency in the long-buried Jeffrey Epstein case, The Wall Street Journal has dropped yet another bombshell—this time confirming that former President Bill Clinton sent a handwritten birthday note to Epstein for his 50th birthday in 2003, part of a trove of personal letters compiled by Epstein’s confidante Ghislaine Maxwell.

The letter, written in Clinton’s “distinctive scrawl,” reportedly praised Epstein’s “childlike curiosity” and referred to the "solace of friends" in a message described by some as disturbingly intimate, given Epstein’s now-infamous record as a convicted sex offender and human trafficker.

“It’s reassuring isn’t it, to have lasted as long, across all the years of learning and knowing, adventures and [illegible word], and also to have your childlike curiosity, the drive to make a difference and the solace of friends,” the note reportedly read.

Clinton’s connection to Epstein has long raised questions, though legacy media outlets have repeatedly downplayed or ignored his name in the ongoing scandal. Flight logs place Clinton aboard Epstein’s private jet at least four times between 2002 and 2003, including overseas trips to Africa, Europe, and Asia — flights his office claims were related to Clinton Foundation work. However, critics have noted that these trips overlapped with the peak of Epstein’s illegal trafficking network.

“In 2002 and 2003, President Clinton took a total of four trips on Jeffrey Epstein’s airplane… [for] work of the Clinton Foundation,” spokesman Angel Urena said in 2019. Clinton’s office has since refused to comment further on the newly reported letter, deflecting to the old talking point that the former president cut ties with Epstein long before the financier’s 2019 arrest.

That line doesn’t square with sworn testimony from Johanna Sjoberg, an Epstein accuser who told attorneys in a 2016 deposition that Epstein once said Clinton “likes them young,” referring to underage girls. Sjoberg was involved in Epstein’s network between 2001 and 2006 — the same time Clinton was reportedly traveling with Epstein.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration finds itself in a high-stakes battle over the very transparency the American people were promised. Earlier this month, Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel signed off on a controversial two-page DOJ memo that declared Epstein’s 2019 death a suicide and claimed no “client list” existed — a statement that sparked widespread outrage among Trump supporters and victims’ advocates alike.

The backlash was swift. President Trump responded by ordering the immediate release of “any and all” grand jury records tied to Epstein’s federal investigations, insisting that the public has a right to know the full scope of Epstein’s network — including the names of those who benefited from or participated in his sex trafficking operation.

But federal judges aren’t making it easy. This week, U.S. District Judge Robin Rosenberg rejected the administration’s request to unseal grand jury records from Florida dating back to 2005 and 2007. A separate request from Maxwell’s legal team was also denied, although the judge did agree to privately review the transcripts and share parts of them if necessary for judicial review.

The Clinton-Epstein revelation wasn’t the only eyebrow-raising detail from the Wall Street Journal’s exposé. The report also revisited a separate birthday note allegedly sent by Donald Trump to Epstein — one that depicted a typewritten message surrounded by a drawing of a nude woman, with Trump’s signature placed beneath the waist. Trump has categorically denied writing the note, calling it a fabrication and “pathetic defamation.” He has since filed a multi-billion-dollar defamation suit against the Journal and its owner, Rupert Murdoch.

According to the Journal, both letters — Clinton’s and the alleged Trump note — were compiled into a leather-bound album by Ghislaine Maxwell and presented to Epstein for his 50th birthday.

Critics of the Wall Street Journal say the timing and content of these reports appear designed to generate equivalence between Trump and Clinton, despite their very different relationships with Epstein. Trump expelled Epstein from Mar-a-Lago in the early 2000s after learning he had made advances toward an underage girl — a decision that has been independently confirmed and repeated by multiple sources.

“The fact is that the president kicked him out of his club for being a creep,” Trump spokesman Steven Cheung reiterated last week.

While the mainstream press continues to muddy the waters, President Trump’s administration appears to be the only one actively pushing to declassify and expose Epstein’s network, despite resistance from the judiciary and even factions within Congress.

The fight is far from over. The Trump DOJ is still awaiting rulings on multiple requests to unseal grand jury materials from Epstein’s 2019 federal indictment and Maxwell’s prosecution — files that could finally blow the lid off one of the most sinister and well-protected scandals in modern history.