{"id":304,"date":"2026-04-09T18:53:02","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T18:53:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uscnews.org\/?p=304"},"modified":"2026-04-09T18:53:02","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T18:53:02","slug":"melania-trump-delivers-statement-at-white-house-denying-ties-to-epstein-and-knowledge-of-his-crimes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uscnews.org\/?p=304","title":{"rendered":"Melania Trump delivers statement at White House denying ties to Epstein and knowledge of his crimes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/dims.apnews.com\/dims4\/default\/dd2a2a3\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/1657x1104+0+0\/resize\/980x653!\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.apnews.com%2Fc4%2F2f%2Fa4e13ffbd5315630a00c4c51f4b9%2Fea56964076bd4ac1b956e5bdcfc0bb96\" width=\"100%\" \/><small>First lady Melania Trump speaks to reporters Thursday, April 9, 2026, in the Grand Foyer of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo\/Jacquelyn Martin)<\/small><\/p>\n<p>2026-04-09T18:44:07Z<\/p>\n<p>WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 First lady Melania Trump has delivered a statement at White House denying ties to Jeffrey Epstein and knowledge of his crimes, and is calling for a congressional hearing for survivors. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe lies linking me with the disgraceful Jeffrey Epstein need to end today. 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,\u201d she said. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>First lady Melania Trump speaks to reporters Thursday, April 9, 2026, in the Grand Foyer of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo\/Jacquelyn Martin) 2026-04-09T18:44:07Z WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 First lady Melania Trump has delivered a statement at White House denying ties to Jeffrey Epstein and knowledge of his crimes, and is calling for a congressional&hellip;&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","neve_meta_reading_time":"","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uscnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uscnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uscnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uscnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uscnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/uscnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uscnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uscnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uscnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}