First lady Melania Trump has sent Hunter Biden a legal notice demanding a retraction and apology for remarks linking her introduction to Donald Trump with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
According to Fox News, the letter from her lawyer Alejandro Brito accuses Biden of making false, defamatory, and inflammatory statements in a recent video interview. The demand seeks $1 billion in damages.
Biden claimed during an interview with Andrew Callaghan on Channel 5 that Epstein introduced Melania to Trump in the late 1990s and that the two men were very close friends.
The remarks, Biden said, were based on a Daily Beast article citing Trump biographer Michael Wolff. That article was later retracted after a challenge from Melania Trump’s legal team.
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Brito’s August 6 letter, addressed to Biden and his lawyer Abbe Lowell, warned that failure to retract the comments by August 7 would lead to legal action. A source said Biden did not meet the deadline.
“These false statements have been widely shared online and caused massive harm to Mrs. Trump’s reputation,” Brito wrote. “Millions of people worldwide have viewed these videos and repeated the claims.”
The dispute comes amid renewed focus on Trump’s ties to Epstein, following the Department of Justice’s decision last month not to release more documents from its Epstein investigation. Epstein’s 2019 prison death was ruled a suicide.
The DOJ decision contradicted earlier pledges by Attorney General Pam Bondi and others to release all Epstein-related files. The Wall Street Journal reported Bondi told Trump his name was in the files, which he denies.
In the Channel 5 interview, Biden repeated that “it was beyond a doubt” that Trump and Epstein were close friends, and said “that’s how Melania and the president met,” referencing Wolff’s claims.
Brito’s notice warned, “Failure to comply will leave Mrs. Trump with no choice but to pursue all legal rights to recover the overwhelming financial and reputational harm you have caused her to suffer.”
