Stephanie Grisham, first lady Melania Trump’s former chief of staff, told CNN on Thursday that she believes President Donald Trump was lying when he said he did not know his wife would give an address discussing Jeffrey Epstein.
“I’m gonna say, I call BS on our president saying he knew nothing about it, because at the very least I imagine [Melania Trump] would have given him a heads up if she had sent an advisory out yesterday,” Grisham said on CNN’s The Lead.
On Thursday, the first lady gave a White House address denying that she had any connections to Epstein and insisting that any claims to the contrary “need to end today.”
Melania Trump said that she was not a victim of Epstein and said they only briefly “crossed paths” in 2000 but noted that they had overlapping social circles.
She also called for Congress to allow the Epstein survivors to testify.
The announcement caught reporters and the public off-guard and led to speculation that the first lady was trying to get ahead of an upcoming story. The president was apparently unaware that she’d speak on Epstein, telling MS NOW reporter Jacqueline Alemany that he did not know the topic of her address ahead of time.
It was that statement that Grisham claimed was “BS.”
She also said the first lady’s remarks were likely not off-the-cuff, claiming she’s typically very strategic in her communications.
“Melania Trump thinks about everything she does, and she thinks about it for a very long time, and she does things very strategically. She knew full well that walking out there into the White House residence, behind that podium like that, would make absolute waves,” Grisham said. “And so she chose this time — again, I don’t know why… But she chose this very specifically and she definitely thought on it for a few days.”
Grisham said she had no idea why Melania Trump chose Thursday to make her statement.
“I don‘t know why,” she said. “Perhaps again, it‘s a story, or she just got an inquiry, or she saw something obscure that nobody else did see. And it just made her upset.”
When asked if Trump could have stopped the first lady from speaking out even if he’d wanted to, Grisham said “absolutely not.”
“She’s a very strong, very independent woman,” Grisham said.
Documents show the first lady emailing Maxwell in 2002 in a message signed “Love, Melania.”
Her message “cannot be categorized as anything more than casual correspondence,” according to the first lady.
“The lies linking me with the disgraceful Jeffrey Epstein need to end today,” she said Thursday.
The first lady’s current adviser, Marc Beckman, said the public needs to “refocus” away from Epstein and instead focus on Melania Trump’s accomplishments.
“First, enough is enough,” Beckman said during a Friday episode of Fox & Friends. “This has been ongoing, and it’s time for the public to refocus their attention on what achievements our first lady has done.”
He continued, saying the first lady has been “helping people over and over again.”
“Americans are benefiting from her efforts, people in the foster care community, people from an educational perspective. Her achievements have been so wide,” he said.
Whether its international, with the Russian and Ukrainian reunifications and beyond, and we want to focus the attention on her good work and what she’s accomplished as first lady.”
The Independent has requested comment from the White House.
