Since Ms Trump’s address, President Trump has posted on his Truth Social website about the Artemis 2 mission, Hungarian PM Viktor Orban, and the refurbishment of the reflecting pool near the Lincoln Memorial. He has yet to make any public statement about his wife’s remarks
Donald Trump faces fresh demands to testify under oath about his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein after wife Melania’s out-of-the-blue statement on the scandal.
The First Lady made a bizarre speech warning the paedophile “did not act alone” and lashed out at “smears” linking her to the billionaire predator in a televised address.
She called for Epstein’s many victims to be granted a public hearing “to testify under oath in front of Congress with the power of sworn testimony.”
“Each and every woman should have her day to tell her story in public if she wishes,” she said. “Then, and only then, we will have the truth.”
The intervention left many viewers baffled. While unverified claims have circulated about Melania having been introduced to her husband by Epstein, and alleging she had been friendly with him and his fixer Ghislaine Maxwell, there had been no new claims recently.
It remains unclear what prompted the timing of the statement.
But it put the spotlight back on the Epstein scandal, after weeks where it was overshadowed by Trump’s war in Iran.
Since Ms Trump’s address, President Trump has posted on his Truth Social website about the Artemis 2 mission, the Iran war, Hungarian PM Viktor Orban, the refurbishment of the reflecting pool near Washington DC’s Lincoln Memorial and posted CCTV footage of a woman being murdered in Florida. He has yet to make any public statement about his wife’s remarks.
Later, the lawyer for a woman who accused Trump of sexually assaulting her as a child called on Congress to order the President to give evidence.
Lisa Bloom represents a number of Epstein’s survivors, as well as an unnamed woman who told FBI investigators Trump had ordered her to perform as sex act on him while she was around 13 years old.
Her claims have not been substantiated, and have been vigorously denied by the White House.
“While Melania Trump seems primarily concerned about her own reputation today, she does call for congressional hearings. We agree,” Ms Bloom said.
“And the man who is mentioned probably more than anyone else in the Epstein files should be subpoenaed to testify: Donald Trump.”
Two of Epstein’s accusers, Maria and Annie Farmer, said in a subsequent statement: “What we want is accountability, transparency, and justice.”
Former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican and former Trump supporter who quit after a public falling out with the President, posted on X, “I am grateful to the First Lady for her brave statement today about Epstein and his victims.”
Democrats jumped on Melania comments, saying they agreed with her call for a congressional hearing.
In a social media post, Congressman Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee that is investigating Epstein, called on the Republican chair of the committee, James Comer, to schedule a public hearing “immediately.”
In her statement, Mrs Trump said she and her attorneys were fighting back against “unfound and baseless lies” in regards to her connections to the late financier, a convicted sex offender who leveraged connections to the rich, powerful and famous to recruit his victims and cover up his crimes.
She insisted she was not friends with Epstein or Maxwell, but was in overlapping social circles in New York and Florida. She dismissed an email reply she sent to Maxwell, revealed in the published Epstein Files, as “casual correspondence”.
“The lies linking me with the disgraceful Jeffrey Epstein need to end today,” she said. “The individuals lying about me are devoid of ethical standards, humility and respect. I do not object to their ignorance, but rather I reject their mean-spirited attempts to defame my reputation.”