Melania Trump’s Lawsuit Threat Against Hunter Biden Reignites Epstein Speculation

WASHINGTON — In a rare public escalation involving the current First Lady, Melania Trump’s legal team has threatened to sue Hunter Biden for $1 billion, demanding he retract statements linking her to Jeffrey Epstein and apologize for what her lawyers called “false, defamatory and malicious” remarks. The demand, detailed in a letter obtained by Fox News Digital, has instead ignited a fresh round of scrutiny over Mrs. Trump’s early modeling career and her husband’s long-documented social ties to the disgraced financier.

The controversy traces back to an August interview on the YouTube channel Channel 5, hosted by comedian and journalist Andrew Callaghan. During the conversation, Mr. Biden, the son of former President Joseph R. Biden Jr., repeated a claim originally made by journalist Michael Wolff in a 2017 podcast appearance. Mr. Wolff, author of several books critical of Donald J. Trump, had suggested that Jeffrey Epstein played a role in introducing Melania Knauss (now Trump) to Donald Trump in the late 1990s. Mr. Biden, echoing that assertion, told Mr. Callaghan that “according to his biographer,” Epstein had facilitated the introduction.

When pressed by Mr. Callaghan about whether he would apologize to the First Lady, Mr. Biden was unequivocal. “Uh, that’s not going to happen,” he said on camera, a clip that has since circulated widely on social media and conservative news outlets.

The Trump legal team’s response was swift. In a letter dated shortly after the interview, Mrs. Trump’s counsel accused Mr. Biden of causing “overwhelming financial and reputational harm” and demanded the removal of the video, a public retraction and an apology. The letter warned that failure to comply could lead to a defamation lawsuit seeking $1 billion in damages.

Rather than comply, Mr. Biden has leaned into the controversy. In a subsequent video posted to his own social-media accounts, he described the demand letter as an attempt to silence discussion and expressed willingness to testify under oath if the matter proceeded to court. “If they want to litigate, I’m happy to sit down and talk about who knew whom,” he said.

The exchange has revived questions about Mrs. Trump’s early years in the fashion industry, a period that has long attracted speculation but little concrete evidence of wrongdoing. In the 1990s, Ms. Knauss worked as a model in Milan and New York, represented by agencies that operated in a loosely regulated international environment. One figure whose name has resurfaced in recent years is Jean-Luc Brunel, a French modeling scout who was later charged with sex trafficking and who had financial ties to Epstein. Mr. Brunel died by suicide in a Paris jail in 2022 while awaiting trial.

No court documents or victim statements have ever directly implicated Mrs. Trump in Epstein’s criminal activities. She has consistently denied any meaningful connection to him, and the Trump campaign has dismissed the renewed speculation as politically motivated gossip. Still, the overlap between Epstein’s social orbit and the broader New York–Palm Beach elite of the 1990s and early 2000s has kept the topic alive.

The timing of the dispute is notable. It coincides with the release of additional Epstein-related court filings, including flight logs and contact lists that have fueled online speculation. While President Trump’s name appears in earlier documents, he has long maintained that he distanced himself from Epstein after a falling out in the early 2000s. Mrs. Trump has never been named in any Epstein-related legal proceedings.

Legal analysts say the decision to threaten litigation carries risk. A lawsuit would almost certainly open the door to discovery, depositions and document production — processes that could draw even more attention to the very associations the Trump family has sought to downplay. “Threatening a billion-dollar suit against a high-profile figure like Hunter Biden is a bold move,” said one New York defamation attorney who spoke on condition of anonymity. “But it also invites scrutiny that might otherwise remain dormant.”

For now, the dispute remains in the realm of public threats and media skirmishes. Neither side has filed a formal complaint, and Mrs. Trump’s team has not responded to requests for comment. Yet the episode underscores how the shadow of Jeffrey Epstein continues to loom over powerful figures across the political spectrum, long after his death in 2019.

In an era of polarized media and viral clips, the exchange between Hunter Biden and Melania Trump’s lawyers may be remembered less for any legal outcome than for the way it once again pulled the former president’s inner circle into a conversation few wish to revisit.