By Bo Erickson
WASHINGTON, April 9 (Reuters) - First lady Melania Trump on Thursday denied ever having a relationship with disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and said the claims about it are defaming her.
"The lies linking me with the disgraceful Jeffrey Epstein need to end today," PresIdent Donald Trump's wife said in a rare address from the White House.
She said she had never had a relationship with Epstein or his associate Ghislaine Maxwell, with whom she said she had only a casual
correspondence.
"I never been friends with Epstein. Donald and I were invited to the same parties as Epstein from time to time, since overlapping in social circles is common in New York City," she said. "To be clear, I never had a relationship with Epstein or his accomplice, Maxwell.
POLITICAL PROBLEM FOR TRUMP
President Trump fanned conspiracy theories around Epstein during his years out of office, and since his return to the White House the late financier's case has become a persistent political problem for the president.
Evidence in multiple legal and criminal cases has shed light on Epstein's ties to many prominent people in politics, finance and business - both before and after he pleaded guilty in 2008 to prostitution charges, including soliciting an underage girl.
Epstein was arrested again in 2019 on federal charges of sex trafficking of minors. His 2019 death in a Manhattan jail cell was ruled a suicide.
Files released by the Justice Department on Epstein include a 2002 email from Trump's wife, Melania Trump, to Maxwell about a magazine piece on Epstein. "You look great," the email says.
"I am not Epstein's victim," Melania Trump said on Thursday.
She called on Congress to provide women victimized by Epstein with a public hearing centering on survivors.
Donald Trump has said his association with Epstein ended in the mid-2000s and that he was never aware of the financier's sexual abuse. Records previously released by the department show Trump flew several times on Epstein's plane in the 1990s, which Trump has denied.
After the financier was first accused of sexual misconduct, Trump called the police chief in Palm Beach to say that "everyone has known he's been doing this," according to an FBI interview record.
(Reporting by Jasper Ward and Doina Chiacu; editing by Scott Malone)
