As Melania Trump walked up to the White House podium on Thursday, standing where US President Donald Trump had just over a week ago made his address to the nation on Iran, there was absolutely no indication that this would be a jaw-dropping appearance.
There was curiosity, yes, but no one guessed it would be must-see viewing. Not even those most plugged into the administration had any forewarning of the topic, according to officials.
Flanked by US flags, her first sentence jolted those listening. “The lies linking me with the disgraceful Jeffrey Epstein need to end today.”
With those words, the Epstein crisis that had plagued the president was once again front and centre thanks to his wife.
Immediately, US cable channels broke away from their coverage on Iran, given the gravity of what was unfolding.
The first lady has always maintained a relatively low profile, strategically selecting her few public events. She hardly shares the same flair for the dramatic – or the desire to shock and awe the press – as her husband.
Reading from a prepared statement, she said she never had a relationship with Epstein or Maxwell, was not introduced to her husband by Epstein, and was unaware of Epstein’s crimes. She ended by calling for public congressional hearings for Epstein survivors to testify to uncover the truth.
If she had stayed to answer any questions, surely the first one would have been: why did she feel the need now, seemingly out of the blue, to distance herself from the convicted sex offender and go on the record for the first time?
Rumours swirled that perhaps she was trying to get ahead of something new, given the general claims she referenced have circulated for years and she’s usually relied on her lawyers to respond.
Investigative journalist Vicky Ward, who has reported on Epstein for decades, says the timing of the news conference is confusing.
“I think if Melania Trump had done this at the start of the Epstein crisis a year ago and called on Congress to put the victims on record and hear their stories, we’d feel quite different about it.”
The context of her remarks also don’t make sense, she adds. “There isn’t really much of Melania Trump in the Epstein files besides that one email, friendly email to Ghislaine Maxwell. I’m baffled by it. I don’t think anyone ever believed she was a victim.”
Adding to the intrigue, President Trump said he didn’t know that she was going to give that statement, even though a spokesperson for the first lady had initially said he did.
Reaction to Melania Trump’s announcement came swiftly.
Several survivors reached out to each other, sharing their incredulity at what had just unfolded, and began co-ordinating how they would respond. Thirteen of them, along with the family of Virginia Roberts Giuffre, put out a statement saying that asking more of survivors was a deflection of responsibility, not justice.
“First Lady Melania Trump is now shifting the burden onto survivors under politicised conditions that protect those with power: the Department of Justice, law enforcement, prosecutors, and the Trump administration, which has still not fully complied with the Epstein Files Transparency Act.”
Melania Trump’s surprise Epstein statement | Global News Podcast
Democrats continue to argue that the Department of Justice has withheld too many documents without proper justification. Out of six million documents, the Department of Justice released 3.5 million and said there are legal limits on releasing the rest.
Marina Lacerda, who was just 14 years old when she was abused by Epstein, as detailed in the 2019 federal indictment against the disgraced financier, was one of the survivors to sign that statement. But she went even further in a separate video shared on social media, slamming the first lady’s suggestion.
“It sounds like you’re just trying to shift attention from something to something else. So how does this benefit the Trump family, is my question,” Lacerda said.
But survivor Lisa Phillips praised Melania Trump for countering the Department of Justice’s narrative that they were closing the chapter on the Epstein files.
Phillips told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that her call to have survivors telling their stories was a “bold move”. But she also challenged the first lady to follow her words with actions.
“What I would do is I would call her bluff and I would, you know, push her a little bit and say: ‘okay, now that you’ve said that, what can you do? What can you do to help us? And what can you do to move us along?'”
The chairman of the House Oversight Committee, which is investigating the Epstein files, told Fox News on Friday that he always planned to hold hearings with survivors of Epstein’s crimes once the committee finishes its investigation.
“I agree with the first lady and appreciate what she said,” Republican James Comer said. “We will have hearings.”
Barry Levine, author of The Spider: Inside the Tangled Web of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, says the fact that Melania Trump included and acknowledged the victims is very significant because she’s chosen to go against her husband’s stance.
He says President Trump has always turned a cold shoulder to the victims.
“He had been given many opportunities to say something supportive of the survivors in terms of getting accountability for them and he has continually said the files are nothing but a hoax.”
His wife, says Levine, is very much her own person who speaks her own mind. “Even the president has previously acknowledged this.”