WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 First lady\u00a0Melania Trump\u00a0demanded that\u00a0Hunter Biden\u00a0retract comments linking her to sex trafficker\u00a0Jeffrey Epstein\u00a0and threatened to sue if he does not.<\/p>\n
Trump takes issue with two comments Biden, son of former President Joe Biden, made in an interview this month with American journalist Andrew Callaghan. He alleged that Epstein introduced the first lady to now-President\u00a0Donald Trump.<\/p>\n
The statements are false, defamatory and \u201cextremely salacious,\u201d Melania Trump’s lawyer, Alejandro Brito, wrote in a letter to Biden. Biden’s remarks were widely disseminated on social media and reported by media outlets around the world, causing the first lady \u201cto suffer overwhelming financial and reputational harm,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
Biden made the Epstein comments during a sprawling interview in which he\u00a0lashed out\u00a0at \u201celites\u201d and others in the Democratic Party he says undermined his father before he dropped out of last year’s presidential campaign.<\/p>\n
\u201cEpstein introduced Melania to Trump. The connections are, like, so wide and deep,\u201d Biden said in one of the comments Trump disputes. Biden attributed the claim to author Michael Wolff, whom Trump\u00a0disparaged\u00a0in June as a \u201cThird Rate Reporter.\u201d He has accused Wolff of making up stories to sell books.<\/p>\n
The first lady’s threats echo a favored strategy of her husband, who has aggressively used litigation to go after critics. Public figures like the Trumps face a high bar to succeed in a defamation lawsuit.<\/p>\n
The president and first lady have long said they were introduced by Paolo Zampolli, a modeling agent, at a New York Fashion Week party in 1998.<\/p>\n
The letter is dated Aug. 6 and was\u00a0first reported\u00a0Wednesday by Fox News Digital.<\/p>\n
Abbe Lowell, a lawyer who has represented Biden in his criminal cases and to whom Brito’s letter is addressed, did not immediately respond to a request for comment late Wednesday.<\/p>\n
This story was first published on Aug. 13, 2025. It was updated on Aug. 14, 2025, to correct the citizenship of journalist Andrew Callaghan. He is American, not British.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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