Melania Trump stood at a podium in the same room Donald Trump used to address the nation on the war in Iran last week to make an announcement: she “never had a relationship” with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.
It was unclear which specific accusations spurred Trump to respond publicly. The first lady went on to say that she and the president were invited to the same parties as Epstein “from time to time” as “overlapping in social circles is common in New York City and Palm Beach”.
That claim is undermined by the fact that the most well-known images of the two couples together were taken at Trump’s own club, Mar-a-Lago, on 12 February 2000.
Adding to the swirl of confusion over the reasoning behind the first lady’s statement are reports the president has been telling reporters he had no idea his wife would give them. A spokesperson for the first lady initially told the New York Times the president knew his wife planned to make a statement. That report was later updated to note that the spokesperson “later said it was not clear if Mr. Trump was aware of the topic of her remarks”.
Melania Trump says she did not have relationship with Jeffrey Epstein
US congressional leaders seized on the first lady’s call for Congress to take sworn testimony in a public hearing from Epstein victims.
“We agree with First Lady Melania Trump’s call for a public hearing with the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein,” said Robert Garcia of California, ranking member of the House committee on oversight. “We encourage Chairman Comer to respond to the first lady’s request and schedule a public hearing immediately.”
Exclusive: US defense official overseeing AI reaped millions selling xAI stock after Pentagon entered agreement with company
A high-profile US Department of Defense official who oversees the agency’s artificial intelligence efforts made a profit of up to $24m selling a private investment he held in Elon Musk’s AI company earlier this year, according to government ethics records released this month. The value of his stake totaled a maximum of a million dollars when he joined the department.
George Clooney calls Donald Trump’s ‘a whole civilization will die tonight’ threat to Iran a war crime
The long-running war of words between George Clooney and the White House has ignited again after the Oscar-winning actor criticized Trump’s threat to Iran that “a whole civilization will die tonight”.
On Wednesday, in a speech to 3,000 high school students in Cuneo, Italy, Clooney said the US president had committed a war crime with his threat.
Republicans block Democrats’ push to curb Trump’s war powers over Iran
An attempt by House Democrats to pass a long-shot resolution on Thursday curtailing Trump’s war powers over Iran failed after the Republican pro forma speaker, Chris Smith, did not recognize lawmakers from the opposite party on the floor.
What else happened today:
Catching up? Here’s what happened Thursday 9 April.