Hunter Biden wasn’t cowed by Melania Trump‘s threat of massive defamation lawsuits against anyone who helped spread allegations that she met the president through connections to the late sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein.
Biden referred to the story in an interview with independent journalist Andrew Callaghan that was shared earlier this month. A letter from Melania Trump’s attorney demanded Biden’s interview be scrubbed from the internet and that Biden issue a public apology. It threatened a $1 billion defamation lawsuit if the letter’s demands weren’t met. Callaghan offered Biden the opportunity to atone in a video posted on Thursday.
“F**k that,” he said. “That’s not going to happen.”
Author Michael Wolff, who has been a frequent source of stories about alleged connections between President Donald Trump and Epstein, claimed that the president met the first lady through a modeling agent with ties to Epstein in a since-retracted piece published in The Daily Beast. Melania Trump’s attorney demanded that Biden “immediately retract the false, defamatory, disparaging and inflammatory statements made about Mrs. Trump” and accused him of “actual malice” for referencing the article after it had been retracted.
“Given your vast history of trading on the names of others—including your surname—for your personal benefit, it is obvious that you published these false and defamatory statements about Mrs. Trump to draw attention to yourself,” the letter read.
In the interview shared Thursday, Biden leaned on the fact that he was pulling from other reporting, pointing to Wolff’s claims as well as a 2019 story in the New York Times that claimed Epstein took credit for the couple meeting.
Start your day with essential news from Salon.
Sign up for our free morning newsletter, Crash Course.
“What I said was what I have heard and seen reported,” Biden said. “Wolff has tapes, hours and hours of interviews with Jeffrey Epstein directly. The fact of the matter is, I don’t think these threats of lawsuits add up to anything other than a designed distraction.”
Biden said he wasn’t afraid of a court case, laughing at the idea of the Trumps having to sit for depositions about their possible ties to Epstein.
“I think they’re bullies. They think that a billion dollars is going to scare me,” he said. “If they want to sit down for a deposition and clarify the nature of their relationship between Jeffrey Epstein, the president and the first lady… I’m more than happy to provide them the platform.”
Watch the entire interview below via YouTube:
Read more
about Trump and Epstein