First lady Melania Trump puts Hunter Biden on $1B notice over 'false, defamatory' Epstein comments

The Daily Beast retracted an article and James Carville apologized after publishing similar claims

August 13, 2025 5:18pm EDT1/2

EXCLUSIVE: First lady Melania Trump is putting Hunter Biden on $1 billion notice over what she claims are "false, defamatory, disparaging, and inflammatory statements" made about her, demanding he immediately remove and retract the content and issue an apology or face legal action, Fox News Digital has learned.

Fox News Digital exclusivelyobtained the letter that Alejandro Brito, attorney serving as litigation counsel for the first lady, sent to Hunter Biden and his attorney, Abbe Lowell, Aug. 6.

Brito demanded that Biden "immediately retract the false, defamatory, disparaging and inflammatory statements made about Mrs. Trump,"which were contained in a video interview with Channel 5 with Andrew Callaghan and posted to Youtube in early August.

"Failure to comply will leave Mrs. Trump with no choice but to pursue any and all legal rights and remedies available to her to recover the overwhelming financial and reputational harm that you have caused her to suffer," Brito wrote.

In the video interview, titled "Hunter Biden Returns" video earlier in August, the former first son claimed "Epstein introduced Melania to Trump. The connections are, like, so wide and deep."

Biden also claimed that "Jeffrey Epstein introduced Melania, and that’s how Melania and the first lady and the President met."

"These false, disparaging, defamatory, and inflammatory statements are extremely salacious and have been widely disseminated throughout various digital mediums," Brito wrote. "Indeed, the video has since been re-published by various media outlets, journalists, and political commentators with millions of social media followers that have disseminated the false and defamatory statements therein to tens of millions of people worldwide."

Brito added: "Consequently, you have caused Mrs. Trump to suffer overwhelming financial and reputational harm."

Brito said that Biden’s "source" for the false statements is "serial fabulist Michael Wolff, whose lies were published by The Daily Beast in the article titled ‘Melania Trump ‘very involved’ in Epstein Scandal: Author.’"

"Following receipt of our cease-and-desist demand letter just a week ago, The Daily Beast issued an apology to Mrs. Trump and retracted the false and defamatory statements contained in the article by deleting it in its entirety," Brito wrote. "Despite this, you have unjustifiably relied upon Mr. Wolff’s false, defamatory, disparaging, and inflammatory statements about Mrs. Trump and maliciously elected to republish them."

Brito warned Biden that he lacks "any viable defense to the overwhelming reputational and financial harm" he has caused the first lady to suffer.

"The timing of this video is evident and underscores the actual malice behind the decision to publish it given the plain falsity of the statements," Brito wrote. "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."

Brito demanded, on behalf of the first lady, that Biden "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."

Brito also demanded, on behalf of the first lady, that Biden "immediately issue an apology for the false, defamatory, disparaging, misleading and inflammatory statements about Mrs. Trump."

Brito also directed Biden not to "destroy, conceal, or alter any paper or electronic files, physical evidence" or other records relating to the false claims; including communications regarding Melania Trump; records of his sources; and any documents or data regarding Mrs. Trump.

"If you do not comply with the above by August 7, 2025 at 5:00 p.m. EST, Mrs. Trump will be left with no alternative but to enforce her legal and equitable rights, all of which are expressly reserved and are not waived, including by filing legal action for over $1 Billion Dollars in damages," Brito wrote. "You are on notice."

A source close to the matter told Fox News Digitalthat Biden did not comply with the requests by the set deadline.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/first-lady-melania-trump-puts-hunter-biden-1b-notice-over-false-defamatory-epstein-comments

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The source said Biden and his team "leaked the letter" from the first lady's attorney to "a friendly reporter," which "shows how deeply concerned they are about Hunter's serious liability for spreading defamatory lies."

It is unclear which reporter and for which outlet the letter was shared with.

Biden and Lowell did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.

The letter comes after the Daily Beast pulled the article detailing allegations by journalist Wolff that Melania Trump was introduced to her husband Donald Trump via a modeling agent connected to Epstein, after a challenge from the first lady’s lawyers.

"Editor’s Note. After this story was published, The Beast received a letter from First Lady Melania Trump’s attorney challenging the headline and framing of the article. After reviewing the matter, the Beast has taken down the article and apologizes for any confusion or misunderstanding," The Daily Beast posted in place of the article. The url for the article appears to have been amended to remove the original headline and now reads: thedailybeast.com/epstein-this-story-has-been-removed.

It also comes after James Carville apologized to the first lady after repeating the same claim.

Carville opened his latest episode of the Politics War Room podcast with a legal note.

"In last week's podcast episode, we spoke with Judd Legum," he said. "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."

An aide to the first lady, Nick Clemens, told Fox News Digital in a statement, "First Lady Melania Trump’s attorneys are actively ensuring immediate retractions and apologies by those who spread malicious, defamatory falsehoods. The true account of how the First Lady met President Trump is in her best-selling book, ‘Melania.’"

The first lady shared a screenshot of the apology’s transcript and a crossed-out screenshot of a video of the episode titled, "The Epstein connection: Trump & Melania."

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/first-lady-melania-trump-puts-hunter-biden-1b-notice-over-false-defamatory-epstein-comments