Victims criticize Melania Trump’s statement on Epstein connections

On Thursday, first lady Melania Trump made a public appearance to deny she had any amicable connections to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Now multiple Democratic members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform are calling for the president’s wife to testify under oath on her alleged links to Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.

“I am not Epstein’s victim. Epstein did not introduce me to Donald Trump,” Trump said. She also addressed a 2002 email to Maxwell made public through the Epstein Files Transparency Act President Trump signed into law November 2025. The email congratulated Maxwell on a photograph in a magazine, signing off with “Love, Melania.” The first lady denied any closer involvement with Maxwell, who is serving 20 years in prison for child sex trafficking. She called the emails “casual correspondence” and stated, “My polite reply to her email doesn’t amount to anything more than a trivial note.”

At the end of her statement, she shifted focus to survivors, suggesting there should be “a public hearing specifically centered around the survivors.”

“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., said on X. “Otherwise, this is just a shameless book promotion.”

California Rep. Ro Khanna called on Melania Trump to use her power in the White House to release the rest of the Epstein files and said that he “absolutely” agrees there should be an oversight hearing.

“She needs to call on her husband to get the remainder of the files released,” he said in an interview with MS NOW. “She needs to call on [acting Attorney General Todd] Blanche to have investigations, and the survivors are absolutely right that the burden should not be on them.”

“We agree with first lady Melania Trump’s call for a public hearing with the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein,” Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., posted on X. “We encourage Chairman Comer to respond to the first lady’s request and schedule a public hearing immediately.”

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While the top Democrat of the House Oversight committee agreed with this sentiment, many survivors had an opposing perspective.

“Survivors of Jeffrey Epstein have already shown extraordinary courage by coming forward, filing reports, and giving testimony,” a letter signed by 15 Epstein survivors said. “Asking more of them now is a reflection of responsibility, not justice.”

“Survivors have done their part. Now it’s time for those in power to do theirs,” the letter reads.

The letter said Melania Trump was “shifting the burden onto survivors under politicized conditions to protect those with power.” The statement also calls for former Attorney General Pam Bondi, whom Trump fired earlier this month, to be held responsible for revealing survivor’s identities and concealing files.

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