Melania shredded over focus on Epstein victims rather than 'men doing the alleged crimes'

Veteran columnist Maureen Dowd unloaded on First Lady Melania Trump Saturday over her “mysterious” statement this week regarding Jeffrey Epstein, during which, the first lady called on Epstein survivors to be allowed to testify before Congress.

“The first lady called on Congress ‘to provide the women who have been victimized by Epstein with a public hearing specifically centered around the survivors’ so they could tell their stories,” Dowd wrote in an op-ed published in The New York Times on Saturday. “Shouldn’t the men doing the alleged crimes be the ones called to answer?”

Mrs. Trump’s address reportedly came as a surprise to not only multiple senior Trump administration officials, but to her own husband, President Donald Trump, who told MS NOW’s Jacqueline Alemany that he “didn’t know anything about” her statement prior to it being issued.

In doing so, however, Dowd argued that Mrs. Trump had not only misplaced the focus on Epstein survivors rather than on Epstein’s potential accomplices, but had “ended up yanking America’s eyeballs back to Jeffrey Epstein.”

“For mysterious reasons, the Slovenian Sphinx stunned the West Wing, walking into the grand entrance hall of the White House to dump kerosene on the flickering Epstein fire,” Dowd wrote. “In effect, Melania’s dramatic message was: ‘Hey, guys, we’re not done here yet. Everybody come look at what my husband so terribly doesn’t want you to look at!’”

Mrs. Trump is believed to have appeared in the Justice Department’s recent release of Epstein files, specifically a 2002 email from a sender identified only as “Melania,” and sent to “G. Max,” who is believed to be Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell. In her statement this week, Mrs. Trump appeared to acknowledge the email, but described it as a mere “casual correspondence.”