First Lady Melania Trump has threatened to sue Hunter Biden for more than $1bn over a claim that she was introduced to her husband by convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Lawyers for the first lady, who married US President Donald Trump in 2005, described the allegation as “false, disparaging, defamatory and inflammatory.” The threat follows remarks made by Hunter Biden, son of former US President Joe Biden, in an interview earlier this month in which he criticised President Trump’s past association with Epstein.
Donald Trump was once a friend of Epstein but has said their relationship ended in the early 2000s after the financier allegedly poached employees from the spa at Trump’s Florida golf club.
In a letter addressed to Hunter Biden’s attorney, Melania Trump’s legal team demanded a retraction and an apology, warning of legal action seeking “over $1bn in damages.” The letter said the first lady had suffered “overwhelming financial and reputational harm” from the repeated allegation, accusing Biden of having “a vast history of trading on the names of others” to draw attention to himself.
During a wide-ranging interview with filmmaker Andrew Callaghan, Hunter Biden claimed unreleased documents about Epstein would “implicate” President Trump and alleged: “Epstein introduced Melania to Trump – the connections are so wide and deep.” The first lady’s legal letter noted that this claim was partly attributed to journalist Michael Wolff, author of a critical biography of the president.
Earlier this month, US outlet The Daily Beast retracted a story in which Wolff reportedly claimed that Melania was known to an associate of both Epstein and Trump before meeting her husband. The retraction followed a letter from her attorney challenging the article’s content and framing. The Daily Beast later apologised for “any confusion or misunderstanding.”
There is no evidence that Epstein introduced the couple. Melania Trump’s lawyers said Biden had relied on the retracted article as the basis for his statement, describing it as “false and defamatory.”
Her attorney, Alejandro Brito, referred BBC News to a statement from her aide, Nick Clemens, which read: “First Lady Melania Trump’s attorneys are actively ensuring immediate retractions and apologies by those who spread malicious, defamatory falsehoods.”
A January 2016 Harper’s Bazaar profile reported that Melania met Trump in November 1998 at a party hosted by the founder of a modelling agency. She said she declined to give him her number because he was “with a date” at the time. Trump had recently separated from his second wife, Marla Maples, whom he divorced in 1999.
The legal threat comes amid renewed calls for the White House to release the so-called Epstein files – previously undisclosed documents related to the criminal investigation into the disgraced financier, who died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial. Before his re-election, President Trump had pledged to release the records if he returned to office, but in July the FBI and Justice Department said there was no incriminating client list of Epstein’s associates.
Faridah Abdulkadiri
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