First lady Melania Trump on Thursday denied ever having a relationship with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein and said the claims about it are defaming her.
"The lies linking me with the disgraceful Jeffrey Epstein need to end today," Trump 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 am not Epstein's victim," Melania Trump said.
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.
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