First Lady Melania Trump issues a brief statement on April 9, 2026, denying any connection to the slow sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. (Image in White House live stream)
WASHINGTON – First lady Melania Trump said Thursday that she “never had any involvement” with slow sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and that “baseless lies” were being spread about her.
In a infrequent solo statement livestreamed on the White House website, Melania Trump also called for a congressional hearing involving the women who did this divided Stories of abuse by Epstein, who died in prison in 2019 while awaiting a federal trial on sex trafficking charges.
“I call on Congress to allow the women who fell victim to Epstein to have a public hearing specifically aimed at survivors, to give these victims the opportunity to testify under oath before Congress,” the first lady said in her nearly six-minute speech.
“With the power of a deposition, every single woman should have the opportunity to tell her story publicly if she chooses, and then her testimony should be permanently recorded in the congressional record,” she added. “Then and only then will we know the truth.”
Since returning to office, President Donald Trump has repeatedly dismissed the government’s Epstein-related files as a “hoax.” However, throughout the 2024 campaign, Trump promised to release the investigative materials.
The scandal accompanied the president for most of his first term in office. While Trump had a well-documented friendship with Epstein, who pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor in Florida in 2008, he has denied any knowledge of Epstein’s criminal activities.
The first lady also accused people she said “lacked ethical standards” for spreading “completely false” stories that she shared relationships with Epstein and convicted sex trafficker Ghislane Maxwell.
“I was not a participant, was never on Epstein’s plane and never visited his private island,” she said. “I have never been charged or convicted of any crime related to Epstein sex trafficking, abuse of minors, and other abhorrent behavior. The false slanders about me by malicious and politically motivated individuals and organizations seeking to tarnish my good name for financial gain and political advancement must stop.”
Suit for free speech
It was unclear what motivated the first lady’s statement.
She specifically mentioned the Daily Beast, James Carville and HarperCollins UK. The three are mentioned in the accompanying exhibits suit in New York against Melania Trump by journalist Michael Wolff, accusing her of trying to intimidate him into retracting his statements in which he had alleged a connection between her and Epstein.
She also mentioned a 2002 email exchange between her and Maxwell that came to lithe among the hundreds of thousands of records from the federal Epstein investigation that the Justice Department obtained released from December, as required by law. The first lady defended the email exchange as “casual correspondence.”
All but one member of Congress supported legislation to force the Justice Department to release the Epstein files.
The effort gained momentum after the department, then under Attorney General Pam Bondi, said in July it would not release further information about the case. Bondi previously claimed she had Epstein’s client list on her desk.
Trump REMOVED Bondi this month.
Dem supports the call for a hearing
Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, praised the first lady’s call for a hearing.
“We agree with First Lady Melania Trump’s call for a public hearing with Jeffrey Epstein’s survivors. We encourage Chairman Comer to respond to the First Lady’s request and schedule a public hearing immediately,” Garcia wrote on X.
The oversight committee, led by Kentucky Republican James Comer, is conducting its own investigation into the files and has called high-profile figures as witnesses, including former President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Bondi.
