Appearing on CNN, a victim and survivor of Jeffrey Epstein’s human trafficking ring refused to play into the media’s ridiculous claims about First Lady Melania Trump, instead praising the first lady for publicly pressuring Congress to hold a hearing for all the Epstein victims and hold those wrongdoers who were connected to the disgraced financier accountable.
As background, speaking during a public press event on Thursday, Melania shut down the claims spread in the. media to smear her by falsely claiming that she was connected to Ghislaine Maxwell and met President Trump through them. She said, at one point, “I have never been friends with Epstein . . . To be clear, I never had a relationship with Epstein or his accomplice, Maxwell.”
She added, “The first time I crossed paths with Epstein was in the year 2000, at an event Donald and I attended together. At the time, I had never met Epstein and had no knowledge of his criminal undertakings. Numerous fake images and statements about Epstein and me have been circulating on social media for years now. Be cautious about what you believe. These images and stories are completely false.”
And, after vowing legal consequences for those who continue to lie about her, Melania called on Congress to hear testimony from the Epstein victims, saying, “I call on Congress to provide the women who have been victimized by Epstein with a public hearing specifically centered around the survivors. Give these victims their opportunity to testify under oath in front of Congress, with the power of sworn testimony.”
It was the day after that speech by Melania that one survivor, Alicia Arden, appeared on “CNN News Central” and explained that she is “proud” of First Lady Melania Trump for publicly pressuring Congress to host a hearing in which it can hear testimony from the Epstein survivors.
Commenting on that, Arden pushed back on the outright lies that have been spread in the media about the first lady, instead praising her for calling for the hearing. She said, “I’m really happy and really quite proud of Melania to call for a hearing so that if we want to, if I want to testify before Congress about what Jeffrey Epstein did to me, the other victims can come with me, they can come and testify with me.”
Further emphasizing that, the Epstein survivor said, “I’m very happy that Melania is wanting to ask Congress for a hearing for us. So, I would be very, very happy to testify before Congress and I think that it’s really great that she’s wanting to do that for us.”
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Watch Arden here:
For reference, The Daily Beast claimed in August of 2025, in an article that was spread far and wide before it was retracted, that Melania had been introduced to President Trump through the Epstein network. She shut down the claim and had her legal team crack down on it with a vengeance. Nevertheless, many media outlets have continued insinuating wild and defamatory things about her and the Epstein network. So, it was a good and pleasant surprise to see Arden praising Melania on CNN instead of playing into the insinuation game about the first lady.