US first lady Melania Trump on Thursday denied that she was Jeffrey Epstein’s victim or that the late sex offender had introduced her to her husband, Donald Trump.
Reading an extraordinary statement at the White House, Melania 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.
“I have never had any knowledge about Epstein’s abuse of his victims,” she said.
It was not clear why Melania chose to make the statement now.
“Numerous fake images and statements about Epstein and me have been circulating on social media for years now,” she said.
She denied knowledge of Epstein’s sex crimes, saying that the “stories are completely false” and calling accusations that she was somehow involved “false smears about me from mean-spirited and politically motivated individuals.”
She said that she had met Donald Trump first at a party in New York.
“I am not Epstein’s victim,” she said.
“I’ve 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. To be clear, I never had a relationship with Epstein or his accomplice, [Ghislaine] Maxwell.”