By Bo Erickson
WASHINGTON, April 9 (Reuters) – First lady Melania Trump on Thursday denied ever having a connection to disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and said claims about it are defaming her.
“The lies linking me with the disgraceful Jeffrey Epstein need to end today,” President Donald Trump’s wife said in a rare address from the White House. It was not immediately clear what prompted Melania Trump to speak out now.
She said she had never had a relationship with Epstein or his associate Ghislaine Maxwell, with whom she said she had only a casual correspondence.
“I never been friends with Epstein. Donald and I were invited to the same parties as Epstein from time to time, since overlapping in social circles is common in New York City and Palm Beach,” she said. “To be clear, I never had a relationship with Epstein or his accomplice, Maxwell.
“I am not Epstein’s victim. Epstein did not introduce me to Donald Trump. I met my husband, by chance, at a New York City party in 1998,” she said.
She called on Congress to provide women victimized by Epstein with a public hearing centering on survivors.
POLITICAL PROBLEM FOR TRUMP
President Trump fanned conspiracy theories around Epstein during his years out of office, and since his return to the White House the late financier’s case has become a persistent political problem for the president.
Evidence in multiple legal and criminal cases has shed light on Epstein’s ties to many prominent people in politics, finance and business – both before and after he pleaded guilty in 2008 to prostitution charges, including soliciting an underage girl.
Epstein was arrested again in 2019 on federal charges of sex trafficking of minors. His 2019 death in a Manhattan jail cell was ruled a suicide.
Melania Trump did not say why she chose to speak out on Thursday, but Marc Beckman, her senior adviser, told Reuters in a statement: “First Lady Melania Trump spoke out now because enough is enough. The lies must stop.” He said, “It is time for the public and media to focus on her incredible achievements as First Lady, the lives she has positively impacted, and her commitment to our nation.”
The Trump administration, under pressure from Trump’s political base, ordered the U.S. Justice Department to release files tied to criminal probes of Epstein in compliance with a transparency law passed by Congress.
The files released by the Justice Department include a 2002 email from Melania Trump to Maxwell about a New York Magazine piece on Epstein.
“Nice story about JE in NY mag. You look great on the picture,” the email says. “Give me a call when you are back in NY.”
Melania Trump on Thursday described her email to Maxwell as just “casual correspondence,” adding: “My polite reply to her email doesn’t amount to anything more than a trivial note.”
‘NO KNOWLEDGE’ OF EPSTEIN’S CRIMES
Donald Trump has said his association with Epstein ended in the mid-2000s and that he was never aware of the financier’s sexual abuse. Records previously released by the department show Trump flew several times on Epstein’s plane in the 1990s, which Trump has denied.
After the financier was first accused of sexual misconduct, Trump called the police chief in Palm Beach to say that “everyone has known he’s been doing this,” according to an FBI interview record.
Melania Trump said on Thursday that she first “crossed paths” with Epstein in 2000 at an event she attended with her husband.
“At the time, I had never met Epstein and had no knowledge of his criminal undertakings,” she said.
(Reporting by Bo Erickson and Jasper Ward, writing by Doina Chiacu and Michelle Nichols; editing by Scott Malone and Alistair Bell)
Disclaimer: This report is auto generated from the Reuters news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.