One victim of Jeffrey Epstein has questioned Melania Trump’s motives for speaking out about the late sex offender and offered her own theory for the timing of the first lady’s forceful comments.
It’s not clear what prompted the surprise statement from Trump on Thursday, with the first lady denying having any kind of relationship with Epstein and saying she wanted to clear her “good name.”
Epstein victim Marina Lacerda, who has said she first met Epstein in 2002, when she was 14 years old, and suffered years of sexual abuse, said of Trump’s statement, “It sounds like you’re just trying to shift attention from something to something else.”
“So, how does this benefit the Trump family, is my question,” Lacerda said in a post on Instagram.
“The lies linking me to the disgraceful Jeffrey Epstein need to end today,” the first lady declared Thursday. “I have never been friends with Epstein.”
The 55-year-old then called on lawmakers to “give these victims their opportunity to testify under oath in front of Congress with the power of sworn testimony.”
“Each and every woman should have her day to tell her story in public if she wishes, and then her testimony should be permanently entered into the congressional record,” she said. “Then, and only then, we will have the truth.”
The Daily Beast has contacted representatives for Melania Trump for comment on this story.
Her husband, 79, has previously called the Epstein files a “Democrat hoax” and has denied any wrongdoing over his links to Epstein, who died in 2019.
A group of Epstein survivors has called out the first lady’s statement, pointing out they have already “shown extraordinary courage” by coming forward, filing criminal reports, and giving testimony in court.
“Asking more of them now is a deflection of responsibility, not justice,” the statement read. “First Lady Melania Trump is now shifting the burden onto survivors under politicized conditions that protect those with power: the Department of Justice, law enforcement, prosecutors, and the Trump Administration, which has still not fully complied with the Epstein Files Transparency Act.”
The act was signed into law last November and led to the belated release of a tranche of documents, videos, and images by the Department of Justice relating to the investigation and prosecution of Epstein and his accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell.
But the release was botched, with only 3 million of an estimated 6 million documents released. Names were frequently redacted, even though victims’ names were initially visible in one release.
The letter from the Epstein survivors said Melania’s surprise statement “also diverts attention from (former Attorney General) Pam Bondi, who must answer for withheld files and the exposure of survivors’ identities. Those failures continue to put lives at risk while shielding enablers.”
The message concluded, “Survivors have done their part. Now it’s time for those in power to do theirs.”
Epstein survivor Lacerda, who also signed the letter, released her own video on Instagram on Thursday, where she speculated about the timing of Melania Trump finally breaking her silence.
“We are supposed to testify in front of Congress under oath,” Lacerda said. “For what? Tell us why. Will it change anything? Will people be held accountable? We had the Transparency Act passed. We had the [Epstein] files dropped. We’ve got the names on the files.”
She continued, “Nobody has done nothing. But yet, you want to retraumatize us and ask us to go in front of Congress and tell them our story, which we have told some of them already. So now you want us to tell them again, under oath, and retraumatize us and then do absolutely nothing?”
“That sounds like a s--tty idea, it sounds like you’re just trying to shift attention from something to something else. So, how does this benefit the Trump family, is my question.”
Lacerda told ABC News last year that a visit to his New York home in 2002, when she was 14, to provide massage services eventually led to years of sexual abuse.
Survivors Maria and Anna Farmer, who were signatories on the statement, also released a separate document on Thursday, calling for “accountability, transparency, and justice.”
The statement read, “The federal government has long mismanaged the Epstein investigation by repeatedly ignoring survivors, violating their privacy, and refusing to release the remaining records held by the Department of Justice — including my complete FBI records from 1996.”
The FBI failed to act on a report made by Maria Farmer in 1996, her sister Anna was abused by Epstein.
The sisters’ letter continued, “If the federal government is truly committed to supporting survivors, it would ask us what we want and should follow the facts wherever they may lead.”
Speaking on Laura Coates Live on CNN on Thursday evening, Democrat Melanie Stansbury of the House Oversight Committee said she had been on a call with Epstein survivors moments after Melania Trump’s statement.
“One of the survivors said that they felt personally offended by her statement because they felt like it was essentially saying it was on the survivors to come give public testimony, and it‘s on them to tell their stories again to the American people,” Stansbury said.
“And the entire point of this case is that there‘s been a miscarriage of justice for decades.”
Stansbury said Democrats have called for public hearings “hundreds of times”, including requesting former Attorney General Pam Bondi and her replacement, Todd Blanche.
“While we appreciate that the first lady is weighing in and asking for public hearings… we want to hear from the law enforcement who have yet to prosecute these cases.”
