• Melania Trump denies any relationship with Jeffrey Epstein or his associate, Ghislaine Maxwell.
• She urges Congress to hold public hearings for survivors of Epstein's crimes.
• The first lady characterizes online claims linking her to Epstein as “mean-spirited attempts” to defame her.
• She states she has never been involved in any capacity with Epstein and has no prior knowledge of his illegal activities.
• Melania emphasizes the need for victims' testimonies to be entered permanently into the Congressional Record.

First Lady Melania Trump publicly denied any connection to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein during a rare address from the White House. In her statement, she condemned the "lies linking me with the disgraceful Jeffrey Epstein" and emphasized that these allegations should "end today," highlighting the impact of misinformation circulating about her online, according to Reuters and India Times.

During her statement, Melania Trump called for Congress to hold public hearings specifically for the women victimized by Epstein, stating that “each and every woman should have her day to tell her story in public if she wishes.” She maintained that she has never been involved in any capacity with Epstein’s crimes, adding that “I have never had any knowledge of Epstein’s abuse of his victims,” according to South China Morning Post and CBS News.

She also clarified that she does not have a friendship with Epstein or Maxwell, describing her prior correspondence with Maxwell as only "casual." The first lady vehemently rejected that Epstein introduced her to Donald Trump, stating she met her husband by chance at a 1998 New York party and had only encountered Epstein at a later event. She reinforced her stance by asserting that her name has never appeared in any court documents regarding Epstein's crimes, according to BBC and Los Angeles Times.

In her address, Melania Trump pointed out that the release of documents related to Epstein's case, which included her name, had stirred up renewed scrutiny, but she firmly denied any wrongdoing. She said that multiple fabricated stories and images linking her to Epstein have circulated online, urging the public to be cautious about the information they consume. She repeated that she has never been on Epstein's plane or visited his private island, and her legal team has successfully contested false claims, per Channel News Asia and Al Jazeera.