Melania steps before the cameras - the victims respond

Melania Trump appeared Thursday afternoon without announcement in the entrance area of the White House before a small group of visibly surprised journalists and spoke for just under six minutes. She wanted to clear her good name. The lies linking her to Jeffrey Epstein had to end today.

She said she had never been Epstein’s friend. Donald and she had occasionally been invited to the same parties as Epstein because social circles in New York and Palm Beach overlapped. The first time she met him was in 2000, at an event she attended with her husband. Epstein had not introduced her to Donald Trump. She met her husband in 1998 by chance at a New York party, introduced by Italian modeling agent Paolo Zampolli. That is documented in her book. Zampolli, reachable in Milan, confirmed her version and said he was ready to testify before Congress. Zampolli had business ties to Epstein and appears multiple times in the Epstein files.

Melania’s name had appeared in the Epstein files - in an email from 2002 in which a woman named Melania praised Ghislaine Maxwell for a profile about Epstein. Maxwell addressed the writer as “sweet treasure,” the woman signed “love.” Melania said Thursday that this correspondence was nothing more than a casual exchange. She never had a relationship with Maxwell or Epstein. She never sat on Epstein’s plane. She never visited his private island. Her name does not appear in any court documents, witness testimony, or FBI records in connection with Epstein.

What she did not say - and what was in the room - is that the same cannot be said of her husband. Trump’s name appears multiple times in the flight logs of Epstein’s plane. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick confirmed during a Senate hearing that he had visited Epstein’s island. Trump told a journalist he had no prior knowledge of what his wife would say. The White House did not answer questions about what the president knew and when.

The victims’ response did not take long to follow.

In a joint statement, signed by Danielle Bensky, Liz Stein, Marijke Chartouni, Amanda Roberts, Sky Roberts, Sharlene Rochard, Jess Michaels, Maria Farmer, Lara Blume McGee, Rachel Benevidez, Juliette Rose Bryant, Marina Lacerda, Annie Farmer, and others, including two women listed only as Jane Doe, the victims wrote that they had already shown extraordinary courage by coming forward, filing reports, and testifying. To demand more from them was not justice, but a distraction from responsibility. Melania Trump, they said, was shifting the burden onto survivors under politicized conditions that protect those in power - the Department of Justice, law enforcement agencies, prosecutors, and a government that has still not fully complied with the Epstein Files Transparency Act. The statement also named Pam Bondi, the former attorney general who was dismissed, in part over her handling of the Epstein files. Bondi must provide answers for withheld records and the disclosure of survivors’ identities. These failures continue to endanger lives and shield accomplices. The survivors have done their part. Now it is time for those in power to do theirs.

Donald Trump, Melania Trump, Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell at a party in Mar a Lago in Palm Beach February 12, 2000

Photo: Davidoff Studios, Getty Images

Melania had called in her statement for Congress to give the victims a public hearing where they could testify under oath. Democratic Representative Robert Garcia of California, a leading member of the Oversight Committee, said he supported this demand - and added that Democrats had been calling for exactly that from Republicans for months. He also noted that Melania’s statements contradicted Trump’s repeated claim that the Epstein investigation was a hoax driven by Democrats.

Trump had urged the country to move on. He had snapped at a reporter who asked him for a message to Epstein’s victims. His wife said Thursday: every woman should have her day to tell her story publicly, if she wishes.

Then she turned on her stiletto heels and left the room. Journalists called after her: why now? Why now?

She did not answer.