Investigating letter Epstein allegedly sent to Larry Nassar that mentioned Trump

Claim:

The U.S. Department of Justice released a letter purportedly from Jeffrey Epstein to fellow sex offender and former U.S. gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar that said, in part, “Our president shares our love of young, nubile girls.”

Rating:

Context

The document was present in the files released by the Justice Department in December 2025, but Snopes has not verified the message was written by Epstein. The DOJ said it had “confirmed this alleged letter from Jeffrey Epstein to Larry Nassar is FAKE.”

In late December 2025, following releases of documents by the U.S. Department of Justice related to its investigation of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, rumors circulated online that one of the files released featured a letter from Epstein to fellow sex offender and former United States gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar. 

Users shared the claim on social media platforms such as BlueSky (archived), Instagram (archived) and Threads (archived), alleging that the letter referenced President Donald Trump — specifically, that it said Trump shared Epstein’s and Nassar’s “love of young, nubile girls.” Many people sharing the claim also included a purported screenshot of the message in question.

DOJ briefly uploaded this letter from Jeff Epstein to serial child molester Larry Nassar: “Our president 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.”

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— Ashton Pittman (@ashtonpittman.bsky.social) December 23, 2025 at 1:03 AM

The claim that such a letter was included in the Justice Department’s release of Epstein case documents was true.

However, it is important to note that Snopes was unable to verify the letter was genuinely written by Epstein. The Department of Justice said on X that it had confirmed the letter was fake.

The specific file could be viewed on the DOJ’s website, which included an evidence form, a handwritten note in a greeting card that depicted a man and woman sharing a romantic moment, an envelope that featured handwritten addressing and a stamp indicating the letter was returned to sender due to the recipient being “no longer at this address.”

The full letter read: 

Dear L.N.

As you know by now, I have taken the “short route” home. Good luck! We shared one thing … our love & caring for young ladies at the hope they’d reach their full potential.

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.

Life is unfair.

Yours

J. Epstein

Official response

Reached for comment via email, the White House press office directed Snopes to an X post (archived) made the morning of Dec. 23 by the Department of Justice that read: 

The Department of Justice has officially released nearly 30,000 more pages of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein. 

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.

The DOJ made another post (archived) on X that afternoon directly addressing this particular piece of evidence: 

The Department of Justice is currently looking into the validity of this alleged letter from Jeffrey Epstein to Larry Nassar and we will follow up as soon as possible.

In the meantime, three facts stand out:

-The postmark on the envelope is Virginia, not New York, where Jeffrey Epstein was jailed at the time. 

-The return address listed the wrong jail where Epstein was held and did not include his inmate number, which is required for outgoing mail.

-The envelope was processed three days AFTER Epstein’s death.

Roughly two hours after that post, the department posted again (archived), saying it had “confirmed this alleged letter from Jeffrey Epstein to Larry Nassar is 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 FBI made this conclusion based on the following facts:

-The writing does not appear to match Jeffrey Epstein’s.

-The letter was postmarked three days after Epstein’s death out of Northern Virginia, when he was jailed in New York.

-The return address did not list the jail where Epstein was held and did not include his inmate number, which is required for outgoing mail.  

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.

What we know about the letter 

The stamp used on the envelope in question appeared to be from the Hot Wheels 50th-anniversary stamp collection released by the U.S. Post Service in 2019. The postmark read “NOVA 220,” which indeed indicated processing at a mail facility in Northern Virginia. 

The return address was written as “J. Epstein, Manhattan Correctional, NYC, NY 10007.” The addressee was written as “Larry Nassar, Inmate, 9300 S Wilmot Rd Tucson, AZ 85756,” the address for a federal prison where Nassar was incarcerated for a time, though he was eventually moved due to threats to his safety. The actual name of the Manhattan facility where Epstein was held was the Metropolitan Correctional Center; federal authorities closed it in 2021.

Keen-eyed readers will note the letter was postmarked Aug. 13, 2019, three days after Epstein’s death by suicide. Many people sharing the claim said the line in the letter reading, “as you know by now, I have taken the ‘short route’ home” was a reference to Epstein’s intention to take his own life.

“Grab snatch” likely referenced comments made by Trump recorded by entertainment program “Access Hollywood” in 2005 and published by The Washington Post in October 2016, during his first campaign for president. Trump said:

You know, I’m automatically attracted to beautiful [women] — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ’em by the p****. You can do anything.

Inmate mail regulations

Reached for comment on the matter of inmate mail, the federal Bureau of Prisons pointed Snopes to its manual for mail management. The manual corroborated the DOJ’s assertion that inmate numbers are required on outgoing mail.

The manual stated that “inmates will place correct identification (full committed name, register number, and complete institution return address) on the envelope. Failure to include any of the above information will require the material to be returned to the inmate for correct preparation.” 

Like the Department of Justice, some users raised skepticism about the authenticity of the letter based on its postmark date falling after Epstein’s death.

The BOP mail manual did offer a potential explanation how a letter could be postmarked days after an inmate’s death. The section regarding outgoing inmate mail read: 

Ordinarily, all outgoing letter mail will be processed within 24 hours, excluding weekends and holidays. In any event, inmate correspondence and mail are under the purview of institution authorities. Staff will assure when special mail is received from the inmate, it is sealed, stamped or labeled on reverse, dated, and the institution return address noted. This mail will be dispatched within 24 hours as provided in the Program Statement Correspondence.

Epstein’s death occurred on a Saturday, so it is possible a piece of mail given to staff by an inmate that day or the day before would not have been inspected by mailroom staff until the following Monday and delivered to the post office on Tuesday — in this case Aug. 13, the date of the postmark. 

However, that does not explain why such a letter would have been postmarked in Virginia if it had been sent from New York.

Handwriting analysis

Included in the DOJ’s case files was a laboratory examination request submitted by the FBI seeking handwriting analysis of the letter in question.

The request read, “FBI New York requests the Laboratory perform a handwriting analysis comparing the letter received from MCC (Metropolitan Correctional Center) and the handwriting of Jeffrey Epstein to conclude if the individual who wrote the letter was Epstein or another unknown person.”

The FBI declined to comment to Snopes on the results of the analysis.

For further reading on rumors pertaining to Epstein, his associates and their crimes, check out Snopes’ collection of related rumors we’ve investigated throughout 2025.