Melania says her piece about Epstein – doth the lady protest too much?

The first lady unleashed a barrage of denials – and put one of her husband’s biggest political liabilities back on the agenda

Video: Melania Trump says she ‘never’ had relationship with Epstein

When Donald Trump launched a seemingly random war against Iran, there was a whiff of suspicion of a Wag the Dog ploy to divert attention from how badly the Jeffrey Epstein scandal was going.

So when Trump’s wife Melania made a mysterious appearance at the White House on Thursday to put Epstein front and centre again, was it an elaborate ruse to divert attention from how badly the Iran war is going?

Wearing a grey pantsuit, the first lady emerged from the Blue Room and walked to a lectern flanked by US flags in the grand foyer, surrounded by chandeliers, marble pillars and shiny chequered floor.

As cameras clicked away, Melania, full of cold fury, said in her now familiar Slovenian accent: “The lies linking me with the disgraceful Jeffrey Epstein need to end today.”

To which America responded: “What lies? Maybe we read something somewhere a few months ago but we have more pressing concerns right now.”

But Melania had come to say her piece. “The individuals lying about me are devoid of ethical standards, humility and respect. I do not object to their ignorance, but rather I reject their mean-spirited attempts to defame my reputation.”

There was then a small, nervy linguistic slip: “I never been friends with Epstein.”

Staring down at her prepared remarks, the first lady acknowledged that she and Trump went to the same parties as Epstein and moved in the same social circles but she “never had a relationship with Epstein or his accomplice, [Ghislaine] Maxwell”.

In an apparent reference to a 2002 email to Maxwell, in which a woman called “Melania” praised a profile of Epstein in New York magazine and signed off “Love”, Melania insisted there had only been casual correspondence and that her response was trivial.

“I am not Epstein’s victim,” she went on. “Epstein did not introduce me to Donald Trump. I met my husband by chance at a New York City party in 1998.”