Melania Trump denies any ties to Epstein

US first lady urges Congress to hold hearings for victims

WASHINGTON:

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 victimised by Epstein with a public hearing centring on survivors.

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.

The Trump administration, under pressure from Trump's political base, ordered the US 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.

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."