A (0:01)

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B (0:46)

Hey everybody, it's Alison Gill, host of the Daily Beans Podcast. Thanks to Midas for having me here on the Midas Touch Network. I have been covering the Epstein files here on on the Breakdown for months now and this apropos of nothing statement by Melania Trump came as quite a surprise to everyone, I think, maybe even including Donald Trump. And I have to wonder if she's under some sort of duress or maybe being blackmailed. I'm not sure. But what is Melania Trump trying to get out ahead of? Why, after the Epstein saga had all but disappeared from corporate media and the news, why? Why would the administration authorize the first lady to go out and make a statement pushing the Epstein files right back into the spotlight? Now, there's a few theories floating around out there and I'm going to tell you mine on today's episode of the Breakdown. So by now you've all seen it. Prompted by seemingly nothing whatsoever, the first lady came out this week and gave a statement on her ties, or lack thereof, to Jeffrey Epstein. Epstein. Watch.

C (2:02)

The lies linking me with the disgraceful Jeffrey Epstein need to end today. The individuals lying about me are devoid of ethical standards, humility and respect. I do not object to their ignorance, but rather I reject their mean spirited attempts to defame my reputation. I never been friends with Epstein. Donald and I were invited to the same parties as Epstein from time to time, since overlapping in social circles is common in New York City and Palm Beach. To be clear, I never had a relationship with Epstein or his accomplice Maxwell. My email reply to Maxwell cannot be categorized as anything more than casual correspondence. My polite reply to her email doesn't amount to anything more than a tribal note. I am not Epstein's victim. Epstein did not introduce me to Donald Trump. I met my husband by chance at the New York city party in 1998. This initial encounter with my husband is documented in detail in my book. Melania

B (3:48)

now, first of all, her denial that Epstein introduced her to Donald Trump is interesting, given that her source for that truth is herself her own book. There are some 302s. Those are FBI forms that lay out formal interviews with the FBI that say that Melania was introduced to Trump by Epstein. She said, I met Donald at a New York city party in 1998, and you can count on that because I wrote it in my book. It's like the old. So your source is, trust me, bro. But what's really bizarre about this is that no one has made any of those kinds of accusations for months. The latest one is a file that was released by the Department of Justice and FBI. 302. As I said, that came out the first week of March over a month ago. So why is she out here now this week denying some sort of claim like that to the public from the White House again after the Epstein files? News has. Has been in a lull, which, you know, I'm sure even though this administration is taking it on the nose for a lot of other things in the news right now, Donald Trump was probably happy that we had sort of all collectively. Well, not us here, but the mainstream media had sort of collectively stopped talking about the Epstein files. Well, I have a few ideas. First and foremost, Ghislaine Maxwell, who Melania mentions by name in her statement, is actually holding a lot of cards and as we know, has been angling for a pardon. She had appealed her conviction all the way up to the Supreme Court, and Trump's Justice Department was supposed to respond to it, but they postponed their response to her appeal twice before finally deciding to oppose her on it. I was very interested in how they would come down on that. And they came down in opposition to her appeal. They filed a brief in the Supreme Court that Maxwell's conviction should stand. And the Supreme Court then denied Ghislaine Maxwell's appeal, which exhausted her bid to get out of prison. And with her case exhausted, that subjected the records from her case files to public release under the Epstein Files Transparency Act. But Maxwell fought that in court. They. She fought it by filing a habeas petition, by the way, all by herself, without any lawyers signing onto it, stating that the courts couldn't possibly give her a fair shake on her habeas petition if they released her case files. She said it would be very damning to me. In my habeas petition case, the one that no lawyers were willing to sign on to, if you released these files, what I think is more likely is if her files were Released, she could lose that leverage. She could lose leverage over Trump by threatening to release them herself. Okay. And remember last year when multiple stories broke about the Epstein birthday book? Right. And they found their way into the pages of the Wall Street Journal, including that gross drawing and poem signed by Donald Trump. Trump then sued the journal for $10 billion and that litigation is still pending. But that series of stories came out in mid July of 2025. And just two weeks later, Ghislaine Maxwell was moved to a low security facility in Texas, a facility where sex offenders are not allowed to go. In fact, the Bureau of Prisons waived her sex offender status in order to move her there. Then the stories from the Wall Street Journal stopped. Was Maxwell the source for those in cooperation with the Epstein estate to get those birthday book stories to the Wall Street Journal? I don't have any confirmation on that, but the timing is really interesting. And then next you'll recall around that same time In July of 2025, Pam Bondi and Kash Patel issued a statement saying that they're closing the Epstein matter. There's no prosecutions of third parties. And apropos of nothing, they said also there's no blackmail either. That might have been because right around that time, the Department of Justice was exchanging emails about an Epstein survivor interview stating that Trump and Epstein had discussed blackmail. And I think within a week Trump, after that 302 being published within the FBI, Epstein suicided. And that was one of several documents that wasn't released by Department of Justice until after they said they were done releasing documents. And that batch of documents, which included summaries of anonymous tips, called into the FBI tip line, several 302s memorializing formal FBI interviews with survivors. That was some of the most damning stuff to Donald Trump. And it came out in March and, and the DOJ even pulled them down after they were published, only to put them back up later. But that's what got them so much attention. And what's interesting about those documents and that production is that they weren't from the original FBI files. They were all bait stamped with Ghislaine Maxwell's case number. These were documents that Ghislaine Maxwell had in her possession. And now that DOJ has denied her appeal and she's fighting to keep her case under seal, all of her files out of the public because of her habeas petition, all of a sudden the department releases a bunch of damning documents. So did Ghislaine Maxwell threaten to release those documents, forcing the DOJ to release them first so they could control the narrative. When that happened, it reminded me of something I called back in the Mueller She Wrote days when I hosted the podcast about the Mueller investigation, I called it lubing the truth. And I did that because, if you remember, Don Jr. Got a call from the New York Times seeking comment on that Trump tower meeting from June 2016 with the Russians. And rather than comment, New York Times was like, we're going to publish this, you know, tomorrow or the next day. We would like your comment. And rather than that, Don Jr. Hung up and then published his own damning communications with his dad before the Times could publish their story. Now, in court, they call this drawing the sting. Getting out ahead of a narrative so you can control it. Like when a prosecutor whose star witness is a not so credible person, the prosecution might be like, didn't you go to jail for this? Aren't you this kind of a bad person? You know, get all that stuff out so that your opponents can't do it. Do it first. Draw the sting, lube the truth. And I have to think that's what's going on with Melania. Perhaps Ghislaine Maxwell is threatening to release more damning files in her possession that include Melania in hopes that maybe she'll get a pardon, right? Trump wouldn't do it. So maybe she's saying, well, what if I release the stuff about your wife? And it might be why Trump never took a pardon off the table. And it might be why Blanche offered her a low security Club Fed position. Like, we can't pardon you. We can't support your appeal, but we can move you to nicer digs. I mean, look at the timeline. It was July 4th, when Pam Bondi and Kash Patel said, nothing to see here, no blackmail. It was July 14, 10 days later when the Department of Justice opposed her appeal, Ghislaine Maxwell's appeal to the supreme court. It was three days later, on July 17, when those stories about the birthday book started to hit the Wall Street Journal. And it was a week later that Todd Blanche went up and met with Ghislaine Maxwell. And then another week after that, she was moved to Bryan, Texas, to a low security facility, having her sex offender status waived. But then DOJ released damning documents from Maxwell's case files last month, as I said, first week of March. And now Melania is coming out telling folks, don't believe the smears, don't believe the lies. I was never friends with Epstein. He never introduced me to my husband, especially that Epstein never introduced her to her husband just at a New York City party. Now, I think Maxwell could be threatening to release more. So I say keep an eye on the Wall Street Journal in the coming weeks. But there's another theory out there. Just hours before Melania's address to the public, a woman named Amanda Ungaro began replying to old posts of Melania's on Twitter. And her replies are from April 8th, the night before Melania's address at 10pm Pacific, I think maybe one in the morning, Eastern time. Here's one. Until you fall as a little chicken. And I have nothing left to lose in my life. I will tear down the entire system. Be careful with me. And I will tear down your corrupt system, even if it's the last thing I do in my life. I will go all the way. I am not afraid. Maybe you should be afraid of what I know of who you are and who your husband is. We'll take legal action against you and your pedophile husband. I've known you for 20 years. You knew I was detained in ICE. You were present in my life every year on my son's birthday, even sending Secret Service and being the first to congratulate him back in 2016. And in a post to Pam Bondi, Amanda says, are you already aware of the situation? Do you fully understand the extent of the information I possess regarding you and the individuals associated with you? I strongly advise you to consider the seriousness of these matters and any actions taken against me or attempts to escalate this situation could have significant legal consequences. I expect this to be handled with the appropriate level of responsibility and professionalism moving forward. Now, Amanda Ungaro is an Epstein survivor who flew on the Lolita Express on Epstein's jet when she was as young as 16. She has a child with a Trump ally and an administration official named Paolo Zampoli. But last year, she, Amanda, was detained by ice. She was held in detention for three and a half months and then deported to Brazil. And some have speculated that Ms. Ungaro's tweets are what prompted Melania to make these statements that she made the very next morning. There's no confirmation on that, but it's something else to keep an eye on. Now, Donald Trump told the Times that he supports his wife's press briefing, though he says he may have done it differently. And I didn't know what she was going to say. I like what she said, but I can't imagine somebody so pissed off about having Epstein in the news day after day is somehow cool with his wife bringing it all front and center. Again, I really believe she's trying to get out ahead of something. Something else Melania said in her statement is that the survivor should testify in public and congressional hearings. But according to the Guardian, more than a dozen survivors of Jeffrey Epstein's abuse have accused Melania Trump of, quote, shifting the burden onto them after she called on Congress to hold public hearings with victims of Epstein's abuse. Quote, survivors of Jeffrey Epstein have already shown extraordinary courage by coming forward, filing reports and giving testimony, said a group of 13 people. And the brother and sister of the late Virginia Giuffre, who was one of the most vocal Epstein accusers, in a statement asking more of them now is a deflection of responsibility, not justice. So that's also something to think about. Why is Melania now shifting the burden onto the survivors, although basically handing a grenade to Democrats and the handful of Republicans who have been looking for accountability in the Epstein files? Because now the first lady of the United States is asking for a congressional hearing. But again, it's very interesting and noteworthy that a lot of the Epstein survivors feel that that's burden shifting, not justice. And one last interesting aspect of her press briefing that I'll leave you with this. In her statement, she said that she's not a victim of Epstein and Maxwell. So if the reason Todd Blanche is withholding or redacting anything involving Melania, if the reason was to protect victims, then there's no reason to withhold or redact those portions of the Epstein files anymore. She says she's not a victim, so let's take her word on that and compel the release of any documents withheld about her for that reason. Kind of like waiving privilege. Anyway, I'll be keeping an eye out for potential Freedom of Information act requests along with anything coming out in the Wall Street Journal in the coming days and weeks. Because I have a feeling Ghislaine Maxwell is using her case files, which she has tried to protect and keep under seal by filing a weird habeas petition after her case was already exhausted to the Supreme Court. I have a feeling she's hanging on to those as leverage against this administration against Pam Bondi, against Todd Blanche, against Donald Trump, and maybe against Melania. Either way, the Epstein files aren't going anywhere. Everybody. Thanks so much for watching. Thanks to Midas. Again, if you haven't yet given the Daily Beans podcast a listen, it's free wherever you get your podcasts. And of course, I'll see you here next week on the Breakdown.