Featured Image Credit: Daniel Heuer/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Topics: Melania Trump, Jeffrey Epstein, US News, Politics
Greg Harris
Topics: Melania Trump, Jeffrey Epstein, US News, Politics
Melania Trump has issued a rare public statement denying any connection to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, as survivors responded with a joint statement.
The first lady emphatically denied any connection to Epstein in a statement she announced at the White House in front of the press on Thursday (April 9).
She said any claims linking her to Epstein ‘need to end today’ in what experts have called an unexpected move, with the BBC also stating that it is ‘unclear’ what prompted the statement.
Fox News' White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich said: "We’ve been trying to understand why she made it today, if there was something that she is reacting to that might already be in the news that has upset her, or if there’s a story that’s yet to come out, that’s about to drop that she wanted to get ahead of.
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"Because it did feel like it came out of left field for us."
Trump has even said he wasn't aware what Melania was going to say to reporters.
In her statement, the first lady called for congressional hearings for survivors of Epstein’s sex trafficking and denied online rumors claiming she met her husband Donald Trump through the financier and money manager, calling the speculation ‘mean-spirited attempts to defame my reputation’.
She criticised the ‘unfounded and baseless lies’ and ‘false smears’ against her from ‘politically motivated individuals and entities’ who have tried to ‘gain financially and climb politically’.
She said she had not been a victim of Epstein and said she only briefly ‘crossed paths’ with him in 2000.
“I have never had any knowledge of Epstein's abuse of his victims,” she said. “I was never involved in any capacity. I was not a participant.”
In response to the first lady’s call for Congress to invite survivors to give testimony during her address, more than a dozen Epstein survivors said in a joint letter that they felt she was ‘shifting the burden’ onto them as they have already shared their stories.
The survivors also called for the full release of the remaining Epstein files.
“Survivors of Jeffrey Epstein have already shown extraordinary courage by coming forward, filing reports, and giving testimony. Asking more of them now is a deflection of responsibility, not justice,” the letter says.
“It also diverts attention from Pam Bondi, who must answer for withheld files and the exposure of survivors’ identities. Those failures continue to put lives at risk while shielding enablers,” the letter continues. “Survivors have done their part. Now it’s time for those in power to do theirs.”
The first lady said she met Epstein as a result of ‘overlapping in social circles’ and only had a ‘casual correspondence’ with Epstein's co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell, who is currently in prison serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking.
A 2002 email, seemingly from Melania to Maxwell, was included in the Epstein files.
In the message, she compliments Maxwell on 'the nice story about JE in NY mag', adding 'you look great on the picture'.
She adds: "Give me a call when you are back in NY."
The profile Melania refers to included a quote from her husband, which read: "It is even said that [Epstein] likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it – Jeffrey enjoys his social life."
Melania Trump on Thursday also called on lawmakers to give Epstein’s survivors a chance to testify under oath in front of Congress ‘with the power of sworn testimony’.
She said: "Each and every woman should have her day to tell her story in public if she wishes, and then her testimony should be permanently entered into the congressional record," she said. "Then, and only then, we will have the truth."