Melania Trump’s unprompted press conference distancing herself from Jeffrey Epstein wasn’t just for the public—it was a “threat” to her husband, claims the president’s longtime biographer.
Author Michael Wolff believes the 55-year-old first lady’s statement declaring she “never had a relationship with Epstein or his accomplice” was her way of passing the buck on the Epstein scandal to be just President Donald Trump’s problem.
“The first thing was, ‘You’re not going to pin this Epstein stuff on me. This Epstein stuff is your problem. You got us into this,’” Wolff told Inside Trump’s Head co-host, Joanna Coles, referring to Melania. “To me, [it] read, ‘Congress should investigate you.’ You, my husband, the president.”
Melania abruptly gathered reporters at the White House on April 9 to read a prepared statement addressing her ties to the late sex offender.
“The lies linking me with the disgraceful Jeffrey Epstein need to end today,” she said. “I am not Epstein’s victim. Epstein did not introduce me to Donald Trump. I met my husband, by chance, at a New York City party in 1998.”
She continued, “I have never had any knowledge of Epstein’s abuse of his victims. I was never involved in any capacity—I was not a participant, was never on Epstein’s plane, and never visited his private island. I have never been legally accused or convicted of a crime in connection with Epstein’s sex trafficking, abuse of minors, and other repulsive behavior.”
The first lady ended her statement with a call for Congress to hold a hearing with Epstein’s victims, stressing that “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.”
The statement quickly sparked speculation about what prompted her to address the issue—and why now?
Wolff shared his theory on Inside Trump’s Head.
“She opened up the one area that I think Donald Trump is exquisitely vulnerable on, which is that period in the 1990s, early 2000s. A period of [where] lots of models, girls, his whole connection to the modeling industry,” Wolff said. “We come back, always, to the question: why would she do this? Why would she call attention to this particular moment in time?”
Wolff continued, “I think that she’s saying [to Trump], that’s your problem, and don’t put it on me. You better protect me in this.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Melania has consistently maintained that she did not meet Trump through Epstein, despite sharing social circles and exchanging emails with Maxwell, who was once his girlfriend.
In 2002, when she was a 32-year-old model who had been dating Trump for about four years, Melania sent Maxwell a gushing email.
She wrote, “Dear G! How are you? Nice story about JE in NY mag. You look great in the picture. I know you are very busy flying all over the world. How was Palm Beach? I cannot wait to go down. Give me a call when you are back in NY. Have a great time! Love, Melania.”
In her statement this month, Melania dismissed the message as “casual correspondence.”
“My email reply to Maxwell cannot be categorized as anything more than casual correspondence. My polite reply to her email doesn’t amount to anything more than a trivial note,” she said in her statement. “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.”
