On April 9, 2026, first lady Melania Trump read a statement of under six minutes at the White House denying any relationship with Jeffrey Epstein or knowledge of his abuse, then left without taking questions. “The false smears about me from mean-spirited and politically motivated individuals and entities looking to cause damage to my good name to gain financially and climb politically must stop,” she said.
“I never had a relationship with Epstein or his accomplice Maxwell,” she said. “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 she “was never on Epstein's plane and never visited his private island,” that her name had never appeared in court documents, depositions, victim statements or FBI interviews, and that Epstein did not introduce her to her husband.
Records released by the Justice Department include a 2002 email to Ghislaine Maxwell signed “Love, Melania” that opens “Dear G! How are you?” and mentions a New York magazine story about Epstein. “My email reply to Maxwell cannot be categorized as anything more than casual correspondence,” the first lady said. Trump's name appears thousands of times in the Epstein files, and Epstein once described himself as Trump's “closest friend,” The Independent reported; being named in the files is not evidence of wrongdoing, and neither Trump nor the first lady has been accused of a crime.
She called on Congress to give Epstein's victims a public hearing: “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.” Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, urged chairman James Comer to “schedule a public hearing immediately.”
Survivors and their advocates had not known she planned to address them. “If the federal government is truly committed to supporting survivors, it would ask us what we want and should follow the facts wherever they may lead,” Maria and Annie Farmer said. Trump told an MS NOW reporter he didn't “know anything about” the statement, the Los Angeles Times reported. The address came weeks after Trump fired Attorney General Pam Bondi, and a day after the Justice Department, now under Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, said Bondi would not comply with a House Oversight subpoena for testimony about Epstein.
Correction (October 2, 2026): The title said Melania Trump called for men who conspired with Epstein to face consequences; she called for public congressional hearings for his survivors and said the resignations of male executives did not amount to guilt, so the title was changed. The entry attributed the words “Epstein was not alone” to Rep. Nancy Mace; the passage in The Independent that makes that attribution also credits Mace with a sentence from the first lady's own statement, so the attribution could not be confirmed and was removed. Several paraphrases presented as quotations were replaced with verbatim wording, and a keyFact implying that the Justice Department's “no basis” statement was current was removed; that statement dates to the summer of 2025.