Officials within the Trump White House are saying they were completely caught off guard by First Lady Melania Trump’s on-camera statement in which she denied having any sort of relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
Her husband, President Donald Trump—who shared a decades-long friendship with the disgraced financier—has repeatedly insisted that the Epstein files are a “Democrat hoax” and has urged his supporters to stop discussing the matter.
But his wife going public with a statement calling upon Congress to hear the testimony of Epstein’s victims reportedly took the president and his staff by surprise.
In a phone call with MS NOW correspondent Jacqueline Alemany, Trump himself claimed he didn’t “know anything about” what his wife was going to say.
“She didn’t know him,” the president said of Epstein, before hanging up the call with Alemany.
One White House official also told MS NOW they were not expecting Melania to make such a statement.
Fox News White House Correspondent Jacqui Heinrich reported that White House reporters were given “no heads up on this,” and had not been given “any information from them now, including whether or not the president was aware she would be making this statement.”
“It’s unclear to us if she is reacting to something that’s already happened, already come out, or getting ahead of a story that might be about to drop,” Heinrich said live on the cable news channel.
CNN, however, reported that a White House source told them they did get a heads-up that Melania’s statement was coming. However, the outlet reported that sources on Capitol Hill were still unprepared for the first lady’s remarks.
In an article from the New York Post ahead of her speech, her business adviser, Marc Beckman, said Melania is “action-oriented right now,” and “looking to impact people’s lives.”
Beckman did not tell the Post ahead of time what she would say, but “promised” that the speech would “spread internationally.”
“It’ll be big,” he told the outlet.
The White House did not respond to the Daily Beast’s request for more clarity.
During her prepared remarks before reporters at the White House, Melania denied ever having a relationship with Epstein or having any knowledge about his crimes or 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," she said.
“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 continued. “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 first lady also said she “never had a relationship with Epstein or his accomplice, [Ghislaine] Maxwell.”
One document in the tranche of files the DOJ released on Epstein was email correspondence that appeared to be between Melania and Maxwell.
“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!” she wrote.
The future first lady signed the email, “Love, Melania.”
At the time of the email, Melania had been dating Trump for four years. In the New York Magazine piece that Melania references in the email, Trump called Epstein a “terrific guy.”
“He’s a lot of fun to be with,” Trump is quoted as saying. “It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it—Jeffrey enjoys his social life.”
