Administration

Trump on public hearings with Epstein survivors: ‘I’m OK with that’

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by Sophie Brams - 04/16/26 7:28 PM ET

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by Sophie Brams - 04/16/26 7:28 PM ET

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President Trump signaled Thursday that he was open to the possibility of Congress holding public hearings with survivors of the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

“I’m OK with it,” he told reporters Thursday before departing the White House en route to Las Vegas for a roundtable promoting his “no tax on tips” policy.

“I think we’ve had a lot of public hearings. I’m OK with it, but I understand that the women didn’t want to go under oath. That’s what I heard that the women, the victims or whatever, they refused to go under oath, which was a little surprising,” the president added.

First lady Melania Trump urged Congress last week to provide the victims with a public hearing “specifically centered around the survivors” and the option to have their testimony entered into the congressional record.

“Then, and only then, will we have the truth,” the first lady said during rare remarks at the White House.

During those remarks, the first lady denied any relationship to Epstein or his associate Ghislaine Maxwell, slamming reports suggesting she knew them and that Epstein introduced her to her husband as “lies.”

“Melania felt strongly about it because she was accused of — that I met her through Epstein, but it turned out to be totally false,” the president said Thursday.

President Trump previously told MS NOW that he did not “know anything about” the first lady‘s statement, a claim former press secretary Stephanie Grisham was skeptical of.

“And I‘m going to say I called BS on our president saying he knew nothing about it because at the very least, I imagine she would have given him a heads-up if she had sent an advisory out yesterday,” Grisham, who was the first lady’s former chief of staff, said during an interview on CNN’s “The Lead.”

Democrats have pushed for both Trump and the first lady to testify under oath as part of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s probe into Epstein’s crimes, after their names appeared multiple times in the millions of files released by the Justice Department. Neither has been accused of any criminal wrongdoing.

Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) committed to holding hearings with Epstein’s victims once ongoing depositions concluded, noting that some survivors were willing to participate while most were not.

“I’ve always planned on having hearings with the victims,” Comer said during an appearance on Fox News last Friday.

The idea has also earned backing from acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who answered “of course” when asked by a reporter at the Semafor World Economy summit on Wednesday whether he would support public congressional hearings.

“We have said repeatedly from day one that if there’s any victim that wants to come forward and talk about what they know, whether it’s something that happened by Mr. Epstein, who’s dead, or another individual or individuals, that’s what the FBI does,” he said, according to the outlet, which first reported Blanche’s remarks.

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