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When The Wall Street Journal reported two months ago that Donald Trump had written a suggestive letter to Jeffrey Epstein in celebration of the notorious child abuser's 50th birthday, in 2003, the administration had a choice of available responses. The strategy it went with was indignant denial.
Now that Democrats on the House Oversight Committee have obtained and shared the letter, which is very much existent, that approach appears to have been shortsighted.
The most puzzling aspect of the total-denial approach is that it robbed Trump's supporters of any fallback defense. The Epstein letter is eyebrow-raising""We have certain things in common," Trump writes, closing with the wish, "May every day be another wonderful secret""but it is not an explicit confession. Trump could have admitted to being its author while arguing that the commonalities and secrets alluded to mundane, or at least legal, activities. Instead, he described the letter as "false, malicious, and defamatory""conceding that, if it were real, it would be pretty bad.