Major publisher, HarperCollins UK, has issued an apology to Melania Trump for publishing unverified claims in Andrew Lownie’s book, ‘Entitled,’ alleging Jeffrey Epstein introduced her to Donald Trump. This falsehood is contradicted by her memoir, which details their 1998 meeting at New York City’s Kit Kat Club.
For context, not only has the publisher removed the passages and recalled affected copies, but other publishers, such as The Daily Beast, have also been forced to issue retractions. In that instance, they were forced to delete a Michael Wolff-based article and podcast segment, and Democratic strategist James Carville, who edited his podcast and apologized after legal notices.
In any case, HarperCollins UK issued a statement apologizing for publishing the lies. “HarperCollins UK recently published a book by Andrew Lownie titled ‘Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York.’ We have, in consultation with the author, removed passages of the book that referenced unverified claims about the First Lady of the United States, Melania Trump,” the publisher claimed.
Wrapping up its comments and explaining the following steps, HarperCollins added, “… Copies of the book that include those references are being permanently removed from distribution. HarperCollins UK apologizes to the First Lady.”
Similarly, The Daily Beast was forced to publish an embarrassing retraction. “The Daily Beast recently published a story headlined ‘Melania Trump ‘Very Involved’ in Epstein Scandal: Author’ based on an interview with Michael Wolff,” they noted.
Building on this point, the outlet said, “Upon reflection, we have determined that the article did not meet our standards and has therefore been removed from our platforms… In response to a letter from the first lady’s attorneys, The Daily Beast has also removed a portion of an episode of The Daily Beast Podcast titled ‘Trump’s Epstein Scandal Can’t Stop Won’t Stop’ referencing the first lady.”
Concluding their apology, the Daily Beast was forced to direct readers to Melania’s book, saying, “The first lady points to her bestselling book ‘Melania’ as the definitive account of her life story. We apologize to the first lady and our readers.”
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Even James Carville was forced to issue an apology to the First Lady. “In last week’s podcast episode, we spoke with Judd Legum. 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,” he noted.
As we reported, Hunter Biden was one of many figures who amplified these false narratives. In a recent interview, he claimed, “Epstein introduced Melania to Trump. The connections are, like, so wide and deep. Jeffrey Epstein introduced Melania, and that’s how Melania and the first lady and the President met.”
However, Melania was unwilling to accept these lies. Through her lawyers, she sent out a letter which read, “Immediately issue a full and fair retraction of the video and any and all other false, defamatory, disparaging, misleading, and inflammatory statements about Mrs. Trump in as conspicuous a manner as they were originally published… [and issue a formal apology] for the false, defamatory, disparaging, misleading and inflammatory statements about Mrs. Trump.”