Jeffrey Epstein survivors are split over First Lady Melania Trump’s surprise White House speech in which she denied ties to the notorious sex trafficker and called for victims to be given a platform to speak out at fresh congressional hearings.
Some of the Epstein victims Friday cheered Melania Trump’s unexpected call for renewed attention to the Epstein scandal, which appeared to mark a major break from President Trump’s insistence that the nation should turn the page.
“This is the first person that has some real power who is saying: ‘Here’s a new idea,’” said Lisa Phillips, a prominent Epstein survivor, told Sky News. “I would say: Call her bluff. Let’s see what you can do.”
But other victims slammed Melania Trump for putting the burden on them and distracting attention from the failure of her husband’s administration to hold powerful people accountable for their role in Epstein’s infamous scheme.
“The survivors have done their part,” a group of 13 survivors wrote in an Instagram post. “Now it’s time for those in authority to do theirs.”
“You want to retraumatize us and then do absolutely nothing,” added Marina Lacerda, one of the survivors who joined the statement.
President Trump has repeatedly derided the Epstein scandal as a “hoax” engineered by his political enemies and said people should stop talking about it.
The first lady spectacularly appeared to ignore that advice in her extremely rare speech, which took place without prior warning to White House press aides or reporters.
Melania Trump didn’t explain why she was speaking out to deny any ties to Epstein, especially since she has not been named so far in any of the probes as having any role in his abuse of young women and girls.
Some victims and journalists believe Melania Trump may have given the speech to get ahead of some kind of bombshell revelation about the Epstein case, but nothing had surfaced as of Friday afternoon.
The intense political drama around the Epstein case has mostly died down in recent months, especially since Trump unleashed a war against Iran.
Survivors remain angry that the Trump Department of Justice has dragged its feet on releasing files related to the scandal and officials seem uninterested in further investigations.
The administration has said former Attorney General Pam Bondi will defy a congressional subpoena for her testimony because she is no longer in office.
Democratic lawmakers plan to demand Bondi speak under oath and have called for her to face criminal contempt charges if she refuses. It’s unclear if Melania Trump’s statement could bolster their effort to win support of some Republicans.
