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Melania Trump has threatened legal action against Hunter Biden over his claim that convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein introduced her to Donald Trump.
In a letter sent by her lawyers, the first lady demanded that Biden retract the allegation and apologise, warning of a lawsuit seeking more than $1 billion in damages.
Her legal team called the statement “false, defamatory and extremely salacious,” saying it had caused her “overwhelming financial and reputational harm.”
The dispute stems from an interview earlier this month in which Hunter Biden, son of former U.S. president Joe Biden, alleged that Epstein was responsible for introducing Melania to her future husband.
“Epstein introduced Melania to Trump. The connections are, like, so wide and deep,” Biden told filmmaker Andrew Callaghan. He cited author Michael Wolff as the source for his claim, though Wolff’s work on the subject has previously been disputed by the Trumps.
Melania Trump’s lawyers accused Biden of repeating an unfounded story that had already been retracted by a U.S. media outlet.
The Daily Beast had published an article making similar claims earlier this year but later removed it after receiving a letter from the first lady’s legal team, which challenged its accuracy and framing.
No credible evidence has been presented linking Epstein to the couple’s introduction, and the Trumps maintain they met at a 1998 New York Fashion Week party hosted by modelling agent Paolo Zampolli.
Biden has refused to withdraw his remarks. In a follow-up interview on the same YouTube channel, bluntly titled “Hunter Biden Apology,” he rejected the idea of issuing one. “F*** that — that’s not going to happen,” he said, adding that he viewed the lawsuit threat as a “designed distraction.”
The first lady’s lawyers countered that Biden has “a vast history of trading on the names of others” and was deliberately repeating falsehoods “to draw attention to yourself,” as reported by Fox News.
The clash comes at a time when the White House is under pressure over the so-called “Epstein files” — unreleased documents relating to the late financier’s criminal activities and his network of associates.
Donald Trump previously pledged to make the records public if elected but the Justice Department announced in July that it had found no “incriminating client list” and would not release additional material.
The Melania Trump lawsuit threat is not simply about a disputed personal history.
Any suggestion of a link between the first lady and Jeffrey Epstein touches a politically volatile nerve. Epstein, a convicted sex offender who died in jail in 2019 while facing sex-trafficking charges, moved in elite social circles that included powerful figures from both U.S. political parties.
For Donald Trump, the association has been a recurring vulnerability. He and Epstein were friendly for more than a decade, photographed together at social events in New York and Florida, sometimes alongside Melania Trump and Epstein’s associate Ghislaine Maxwell.
Video from a 1992 party at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate shows the two men laughing and gesturing toward women in the crowd.
Trump has repeatedly insisted that his friendship with Epstein ended in the early 2000s and that he was “not a fan” of the financier. He has said they had a falling out over Epstein’s alleged attempt to recruit staff from Mar-a-Lago’s spa.
Yet their association, documented in flight logs, photographs, and press accounts, has provided ammunition for critics and fuel for conspiracy theories about the nature of Epstein’s network.
That context makes Hunter Biden’s remarks particularly explosive. Even without evidence that Epstein introduced Melania Trump to her husband, the claim connects to broader public suspicion about how closely the former president and first lady were tied to Epstein’s world.
Bottom line
The fact that this dispute coincides with renewed attention on the unreleased “Epstein files” only intensifies its political weight.
The White House’s decision not to publish more documents has created a backlash among some of Trump’s own supporters, many of whom expected full transparency.
Trump has responded by downplaying the issue, dismissing questions about Epstein as a “hoax” and criticising those who continue to focus on the matter.
Nevertheless, the pressure has persisted and the Melania Trump lawsuit has placed Epstein’s name back at the centre of political headlines.
Donald Trump has acknowledged knowing Jeffrey Epstein for at least 15 years, describing him in a 2002 New York magazine interview as a “terrific guy” who “likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”
At the time, Epstein was a wealthy financier with deep ties to elite social circles and a reputation for cultivating connections among politicians, celebrities, and business leaders.
From the late 1980s through the early 2000s, Trump and Epstein were photographed together at events in Palm Beach and New York, often in the company of women, including Ghislaine Maxwell and Melania Trump, then Trump’s girlfriend.
In their own words:
Public appearances and parties
Travel and flight logs
Mar-a-Lago recruitment link
The 50th birthday album
Falling out
After Epstein’s downfall
In 2005, Palm Beach police began investigating Epstein following a complaint that a teenage girl had been paid to give him an undressed massage.
The investigation led to his arrest in 2006, but a controversial 2008 plea deal allowed him to serve just 13 months in county jail while avoiding federal sex-trafficking charges.
When Epstein was arrested again in 2019 on charges of trafficking minors, Trump said they had not spoken in 15 years and described himself as “not a fan.” However, his past association continued to draw scrutiny.
In 2020, during Maxwell’s prosecution, Trump publicly wished her “well,” a remark that attracted sharp criticism. He has also used Epstein’s name as a political weapon, particularly against former president Bill Clinton, while continuing to deny any involvement in Epstein’s crimes.
Donald Trump’s handling of the so-called “Epstein files” has become a flashpoint in his second term, creating an unusual rift between the president and parts of his own base.
During the 2024 campaign, Trump suggested he would release the full set of records connected to Jeffrey Epstein’s criminal activities, though he also added caveats about avoiding “phony stuff” that could unfairly damage innocent people.
Soon after taking office, his attorney general, Pam Bondi, and FBI Director Kash Patel pledged a phased release of the files.
Trump responded by dismissing renewed questions about the files as a “hoax” and criticising those still focused on the case.
In a cabinet meeting, he expressed disbelief that “people are still talking about this guy, this creep,” and later used a Truth Social post to attack former supporters for “buying into this ‘bullshit’” about Epstein.
The decision prompted sharp backlash from conservative influencers and commentators who accused the administration of breaking its transparency pledge.
Elon Musk, amid a public feud with Trump, alleged that the FBI was withholding documents because Trump’s name appeared in them, a claim he later retracted.
The family of Virginia Giuffre, the late Epstein accuser recruited from Mar-a-Lago, also publicly questioned Trump’s knowledge of Epstein’s activities after he confirmed in a recent comment that Epstein had “stolen” her from the club.
Democrats in Congress have also seized on the controversy. Members of the House Judiciary Committee have called for hearings into how the case has been handled and urged Republican chairman Jim Jordan to subpoena Bondi, Patel, and deputy attorney general Dan Bongino if necessary.
For critics, the administration’s reversal on the files has reinforced the perception that, even after Epstein’s death, transparency and accountability remain elusive.
The legal threat from Melania Trump to Hunter Biden may be focused on a single disputed claim, but it arrives in the middle of a much larger and unresolved story.
Any reference to Jeffrey Epstein in connection with the Trump family lands in the middle of a political and moral minefield, one that blends personal reputation, electoral strategy, and the enduring public demand for answers about how a serial abuser was able to operate in plain sight for decades.
The former president’s friendship with Epstein is a matter of public record, documented in photographs, flight logs, and multiple eyewitness accounts.
While there is no public evidence that Trump was involved in Epstein’s criminal activities, his shifting responses, from calling Epstein a “terrific guy” to later dismissing him as “a creep”, have left room for questions.
Decisions by his administration to withhold further Epstein files have only deepened those questions, even among his own supporters.
For survivors and their families, this is not a debate about political point-scoring. The Giuffre family’s anger after Trump confirmed she was recruited from Mar-a-Lago shows the stakes go far beyond partisan rivalries.
At the heart of the Epstein network were teenage girls and young women whose accounts were often dismissed until years later, when the damage could no longer be undone.
The Melania Trump lawsuit threat risks becoming part of a familiar cycle — accusation, denial, legal action — that has played out repeatedly since Epstein’s name first entered public view.
Whether Hunter Biden’s claim can be proved or not, it taps into the larger unresolved question of who knew what, and when, in Epstein’s world.
For a White House already under fire for walking back its promise to release more files, the dispute is a reminder that the Epstein story, and the unanswered questions it leaves behind, will not fade quietly.
4 min read
