Melania Trump's speech propels Epstein crisis back to forefront

 

Reaction to Melania Trump's announcement came swiftly. (Image: Reuters)

There was absolutely no indication that this would be a jaw-dropping appearance when Melania Trump walked up to the White House podium on Thursday. She was standing where US President Donald Trump had given his address to the nation about Iran just over a week earlier. 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.

READ MORE: Melania Trump denies ties to Jeffrey Epstein and urges hearing for survivors

 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.

 Given the gravity of the situation, US cable channels halted their coverage of Iran immediately. The first lady has always kept a low profile by choosing her few public events carefully. She doesn't have nearly as much of a flair for the dramatic as her husband does, nor does she have the same desire to impress the media. She read from a prepared statement and stated that she had never been in a relationship with either Epstein or Maxwell, that Epstein had not introduced her to her husband, and that she was unaware of Epstein's wrongdoings. She called for public congressional hearings so that Epstein survivors could testify and learn the truth at the end. 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?

Given that the general claims she mentioned have been around for years and that she typically relies on her lawyers to respond, rumors circulated that she might be attempting to get ahead of something new. The news conference's timing, according to investigative journalist Vicky Ward, who has covered Epstein for decades, is baffling. "I think we'd feel quite different about it if Melania Trump had done this at the beginning of the Epstein crisis a year ago and called on Congress to put the victims on record and hear their stories." She adds that her remarks' context is also illogical. "There isn't really much of Melania Trump in the Epstein files besides that one email, friendly email to Ghislaine Maxwell.  It boggles my mind. Nobody, I believe, ever thought she was a victim." Even though a spokesperson for the first lady had initially stated that he did, President Trump stated that he did not know that she was going to give that statement, which added to the suspense. Incredulous at what had just happened, several survivors communicated with one another and began planning their responses. In a statement, thirteen of them and Virginia Roberts Giuffre's family said that asking more of survivors was not justice but a deflection of responsibility. "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.  The Department of Justice released 3.5 million of the six million documents and stated that the remaining documents are subject to legal restrictions. One of the survivors who signed that statement was 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. But in a separate video that was shared on social media, she went even further and criticized the suggestion made by the first lady. "It just seems like you're trying to focus on something else," you say. So, my question is, how does this help the Trump family?" Lacerda asked. 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."

Tammy Vigil, author of Melania and Michelle: First Ladies in a New Era, tells the BBC that the fact that her statement didn't include her husband shows a fissure in the White House between the president and first lady and the agendas they're forwarding.

 "She's pushing an agenda that by all outward appearances he doesn't want to push.  So she's helping her own agenda.  It's a very independent statement and we've seen her do that a few times before."

 In contrast, Democrats view this as a political present. Melania Trump has now placed herself squarely into the Epstein story and put herself at odds with the administration, which wants to end the investigation.

 The highest-ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, Robert Garcia, has said that he was stunned by the speech and the Trump administration must now follow the first lady's lead.

 "If Melania Trump wants real justice, she should ask her husband to release the rest of the Epstein files and ensure that Pam Bondi testifies," he said.

 Although he has denied having any knowledge of Epstein's crimes, President Trump, who socialized with Epstein in the 1990s, has characterized the controversy surrounding the Epstein files as a politically motivated hoax. But this time, he can't say that the person who brought the story back into the news had bad intentions.

Source: BBC