Melania Trump denies Epstein ties, seeks victim's testimonies

First Lady Melania Trump has denied ties to financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, saying that the claims “need to end today.”

In a rare announcement on Thursday, Melania, through this denial, urged Congress to hold public hearings for survivors linked to Epstein’s abuse to “give these victims their opportunity to testify under oath in front of Congress with the power of sworn testimony,” she said.

The announcement came with no clear prompt or prior indication from her office, and the White House did not disclose her topic when listing her remarks on its daily schedule.

During the announcement, Melania said she had never been a victim of Epstein or his associate Ghislaine Maxwell, denying rumors that he had introduced her to Donald Trump since they only briefly “crossed paths,” in 2000 she claimed.

Although both Melania and Donald Trump had previously been photographed together with the sex offender, she said that her meeting with Trump was two years prior to her meeting with Epstein.

“I was never involved in any capacity. I was not a participant,” the First Lady said.

Reference was also made to a 2002 email that was released in the Epstein files, between her and Maxwell, whom she denied knowing. This email, Melania said, was nothing more than a “casual correspondence,” and a polite reply.

The email specified, addressed to “G”, Ghislaine Maxwell, includes compliments made towards a story in the New York Magazine featuring “JE” and a picture of Maxwell.

"Give me a call when you are back in NY," Melania says in the email, detailing how she “cannot wait” to visit Palm Beach.

The 2002 email between Melania Trump and Ghislaine Maxwell featured in the Epstein Files (Photo: US Department of Justice) (

The First Lady did not take any questions from reporters and added that “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," continuing, “then, and only then, we will have the truth."

Soon after her announcement, California Representative Robert Garcia said that the House Oversight Committee agrees with Melania Trump’s call for a public hearing, urging committee chairman, Republican Representative James Comer, to respond to her request and “schedule a hearing immediately".

Additionally, US President Donald Trump has been mentioned countless times in the Epstein files, but still, he and many Republicans deny any wrongdoing, claiming that Democrats were selectively choosing documents to "generate clickbait”, withholding other documents that name Democrat officials.