NBC News reports President Donald Trump and his wife Melania Trump have two different tactics for dealing with the Epstein scandal plaguing their administration.
“While the West Wing is mostly in a defensive posture when navigating the Epstein controversy, the East Wing has had a more direct approach to any material that mentions Melania Trump in the context of Epstein,” reports NBC. “The strategy stands out in what has otherwise been a reserved posture from the first lady and her team, who have been more selective about what they engage on compared to their first term in office.”
Melania Trump is sending attorneys to any platform or person that publishes alleged “falsehoods” or “defamatory” information about her when it comes to convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, two anonymous sources told NBC News.
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NBC reports the campaign has resulted in several recent retractions and apologies. The Daily Beast recently retracted a story headlined “Melania Trump ‘Very Involved’ in Epstein Scandal: Author,” based on an interview with Michael Wolff, who claimed that Epstein was involved in introducing her to President Donald Trump.
Democratic strategist James Carville also recently issued an apology and retraction for a podcast segment in which he made similar claims about Epstein and Melania Trump.
“After the episode, we received a letter from Melania Trump’s lawyer. He took issue with our title of one of those YouTube videos from that episode and a couple of comments I made about the first lady. We took a look at what they complained about, and we took down the video and edited out those comments from the episode. I also take back these statements and apologize,” Carville said on a subsequent episode.
Donald Trump appears to cheer the victories of his wife’s legal team from the sidelines, with both Trumps posting about the Carville apology on social media, with the president writing, “Melania is GREAT!!!”
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Not every threat is an immediate win, however. President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter blew off a demand from Melania’s team seeking retractions and apologies for suggesting that Epstein had introduced the first lady to Donald Trump. Melania threatened $1 billion in damages.
“F—— that. That’s not going to happen,” Biden said during an interview on the YouTube show "Channel 5 with Andrew Callaghan, adding that he not only reported what’s already been written elsewhere, but he would welcome the chance to have Melania or Donald Trump on a stand to answer deposition questions.
“If they want to sit down for a deposition and clarify the nature of their relationship between Jeffrey Epstein and the first lady and the president — if they want to do that, and all the known associates around them at the time they met — I’m more than happy to provide them the platform to do it,” Biden said.
As of Sept. 18, Melania Trump’s team have not followed up their threat to Biden.
Read the full NBC report at this link.