Donald Trump’s top Justice Department official has thrown his support behind Melania Trump’s mysterious bid to distance herself from the world’s most notorious child sex trafficker.
Days after the first lady dropped a bombshell statement demanding that “lies” being spread about her in connection with Jeffrey Epstein must end, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche doubled down on her remarks.
“What she said rings true to me,” Blanche told Fox News. “And what I mean by that is there have been tons of false narratives around her, and her relationship—or lack thereof—with Epstein. So I get her frustration and complaints, and I readily agree with it.”
Asked if he would act on the first lady’s call to get Congress to hear the testimonies of victims, Blanche replied: “It’s exactly the same thing that we have been saying for the past year, which is the following: if there is a victim that has evidence against anybody, they should absolutely report it to the FBI, and we will take it seriously no matter what.”
“Her call to Congress to have witnesses come forward and testify is not inconsistent with what the Department of Justice and President Trump, frankly, has been saying for many years,” he added.
Blanche, who is Trump’s former personal attorney, was appointed acting attorney general after the sudden axing of Pam Bondi this month.
But his claim that Trump was aligned with his wife’s call to Congress is at odds with the fact that the president has spent months seeking to distance himself from the Epstein firestorm and has repeatedly described the issue as a Democratic “hoax.”
Trump and his aides were even caught off guard with the first lady’s unsolicited denials last week, with the president later telling the New York Times: “I didn’t know what the statement was, but I knew she was going to make a statement.”
In a carefully crafted six-minute address at the White House last Thursday, Melania declared she had no knowledge of Epstein’s abuse and had nothing to do with his criminal network.
“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,” she said.
“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.”
The 55-year-old former model also insisted Epstein did not introduce her to Trump, who she said she met at a New York party in 1998.
The party was held by her then modeling agent, Paulo Zampolli, who recounted the details to the Daily Beast last week and said he would be willing to testify in Congress in support of the first lady.
It was not clear what prompted Melania to make her statement at this time, or if she was pre-empting a potential controversy involving the now deceased sex offender.
But before the bombshell announcement, former Brazilian model Amanda Ungaro made headlines by accusing Zampolli, the father of her 16-year-old son and now a special envoy for Trump, of using his influence to trigger her arrest by U.S. immigration authorities amid an ongoing custody dispute. He has vehemently denied the claims.
Ungaro was also 17 when she boarded Epstein’s private jet, the so-called “Lolita Express,” on a flight from Paris to New York in June 2002, accompanied by her then-agent, French modeling scout Jean-Luc Brunel, who was also a recruiter for Epstein.
The Daily Beast has reached out to Ungaro, but she has yet to comment. Democrats, meanwhile, have called on Melania Trump to come to Congress to testify herself—just as former First Lady Hillary Clinton did earlier this year.
“If the First Lady wants to clear her name, she should come before the Oversight Committee and testify under oath,” Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-Va.) wrote on social platform X.
Others have also called for Blanche to release the rest of the Epstein files, which number in the millions and remain in the DOJ’s possession.
However, he refused again on Tuesday, insisting the department had released everything it was required to under the Epstein Transparency Act.
