Melania Trump has threatened to sue Hunter Biden for £740 million ($1 billion) over comments linking her to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Attorneys for the former first lady sent a legal notice to the son of President Joe Biden, accusing him of making “false, defamatory, disparaging and inflammatory statements” about her during a recent televised interview.
In an appearance on Channel 5, Hunter Biden alleged that Epstein had introduced Melania to Donald Trump, remarks that were widely shared on social media and reported by multiple outlets.
Biden insisted it was “beyond a doubt” that Trump and Epstein had been “very close friends” and claimed they “spent an enormous time together.”
He told the programme that, according to Donald Trump’s biographer, Epstein had introduced Melania to the future president.
“That is how…the first lady and the president met,” Biden said in the interview.
The president’s son also used the broadcast to criticise “elites” and others within the Democratic Party, whom he accused of undermining his father’s political career before Joe Biden suspended his 2024 re-election campaign.
Hunter Biden attributed some of his allegations to author Michael Wolff, whose books on the Trump presidency have drawn both attention and controversy. Trump has dismissed Wolff as a “third-rate reporter” and has accused him of fabricating material to sell books.
Donald Trump has previously acknowledged knowing Epstein but said their relationship ended following a dispute in the early 2000s. He has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing connected to Epstein.
Attorney Alejandro Brito, writing on behalf of Melania Trump, said in his letter to Biden that his remarks had caused her “overwhelming financial and reputational harm.”
Following the initial broadcast, Channel 5 recorded a second interview with Hunter Biden, offering him what the network described as an opportunity to apologise to Melania Trump and avoid potential legal action.
Biden refused. “F**k that. That won’t happen,” he said, smiling.
He defended his comments, saying: “What I said is what I have heard and seen reported and written, primarily from Wolff.”
Biden added that he viewed the lawsuit threat as a distraction. “I don’t think these threats of a lawsuit add up to anything,” he said. “It is not about who introduces whom to whom. I don’t know how that rises to the level of defamation.”
The legal dispute adds another high-profile confrontation between the Trump and Biden families in a presidential election year already dominated by political and personal clashes.
