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On Thursday afternoon, first lady Melania Trump gave a speech in which she said she had no direct associations with disgraced convicted sex offenders Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, reigniting the Epstein scandal for the Trump administration.
It was known earlier this week that the first lady would be giving a speech, but the subject matter was not announced beforehand. In her missive, Trump said she wanted to speak out against purported “lies” being made about her relating to Epstein and Maxwell.
“The lies linking me with the disgraceful Jeffrey Epstein need to end today,” Trump said, adding that those promulgating the commentaries “are devoid of ethical standards, humility, and respect.”
Very few, if any, reputable media outlets have pushed the accusations that Trump spoke about, which included rumors about her purportedly being introduced to her husband, President Donald Trump, by Epstein on the latter’s plane. A statement from a former employee of Epstein’s did suggest that the couple met that way, but other past reports demonstrate the two met at a party in 1998, unrelated to the disgraced financier, although Donald Trump was friends with Epstein at the time.
Melania Trump’s statement was unusual, in that she hasn’t faced much in terms of scrutiny, compared to her husband, regarding her personal connection to Epstein.
Trump claimed she never had a friendship with Epstein or Maxwell. She also said a 2002 email to Maxwell from her was an “email reply” that shouldn’t be “categorized as anything more than casual correspondence.”
“My polite reply to her email doesn’t amount to anything more than a trivial note,” Trump insisted.
However, the email’s text, revealed in a recent round of the Epstein files being released, suggests it was more personal than Trump lets on.
Melania Trump asks Maxwell, addressed as “G” in the message, about her time in Palm Beach, and relates to her that she “cannot wait to go down” to the area herself. She comments positively about Epstein’s inclusion in a magazine, and tells Maxwell to make contact with her in the near future.
“Give me a call when you are back in NY. Have a great time!” Trump wrote, signing off with “Love” at the end of the email.
It’s unclear why the first lady felt the need to address these theories about her, which have not been widespread or reported on in mainstream media, and up until her speech amounted to little more than a rumor pushed by a former Epstein employee. Melania Trump is also not a large part of the Epstein saga, and for the better part of the past month news about the Epstein files, and the administration’s failures to make them public, has been drowned out by the president’s decision to start a war with Iran.
Asked about his wife’s comments, Donald Trump told MS NOW reporter Jacqueline Alemany that he didn’t “know anything about” his wife’s planned statement before she spoke. He also said Melania Trump didn’t know Epstein before hanging up the phone on Alemany.
However, CNN reported that Trump “was aware” that the first lady had planned to speak on Thursday. Given how controlling of the narrative the Trump administration prefers to be, it would be highly unusual for him or those in his office not to know what she was planning to say.
Following Melania Trump’s speech, a group of Epstein survivors spoke out against her insistence that they testify publicly before Congress about his alleged crimes and connections to other high profile individuals, saying her demand unfairly “shift[ed] the burden onto survivors under politicized conditions to protect those with power.”
“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 survivors said in their statement.
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