US First Lady Melania Trump Threatens $1bn Defamation Suit Against Hunter Biden Over Epstein Claim
US First Lady Melania Trump has threatened defamation proceedings against Hunter Biden, demanding damages in excess of $1 billion over his claim that she was introduced to her husband by convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Counsel to the First Lady described the allegation as false, disparaging, defamatory, and inflammatory. The threat follows an interview earlier this month in which Hunter Biden criticised President Donald Trump’s past association with Epstein and advanced the contested claim.
President Trump previously acknowledged knowing Epstein but said their relationship ended in the early 2000s after Epstein allegedly poached staff from the spa at Trump’s Florida golf club.
In a demand letter to Hunter Biden’s attorney, Melania Trump’s legal team sought an immediate retraction and public apology, warning of legal action seeking “over $1bn in damages.” They contend the statement caused overwhelming financial and reputational harm and accused Biden of trading on prominent names to draw attention to himself.
During a wide‑ranging interview with filmmaker Andrew Callaghan, Hunter Biden asserted that unreleased documents about Epstein would implicate President Trump and alleged that “Epstein introduced Melania to Trump,” a claim he partly attributed to journalist Michael Wolff.
Earlier this month, The Daily Beast retracted a related story and apologised after receiving a legal letter from Melania’s attorney challenging its content and framing. Melania Trump’s lawyers maintain there is no evidence Epstein introduced the couple and say Biden relied on the now‑retracted article, rendering his claim false and defamatory.
Her attorney, Alejandro Brito, referred inquiries to a statement by aide Nick Clemens affirming that Melania’s lawyers are securing immediate retractions and apologies from those spreading defamatory falsehoods. A 2016 Harper’s Bazaar profile reported that Melania met Trump in November 1998 at a party hosted by a modelling‑agency founder; she declined to give him her number because he was with a date, and Trump later divorced his second wife in 1999. The legal threat also lands amid renewed calls for disclosure of the so‑called Epstein files; Epstein died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial, and in July U.S. authorities stated there is no incriminating client list of his associates.
