Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) once again pulled First Lady Melania Trump into the fight over the Jeffrey Epstein files on Thursday, publicly aligning himself with her assertion that the disgraced financier did not act alone.
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In an MS NOW clip shared by journalist Aaron Rupar, the outgoing Kentucky congressman — an outspoken foe of President Donald Trump who was soundly defeated in the GOP primary by a MAGA-backed candidate — said, “I agree with the First Lady when she says Epstein did not act alone.”
The remark echoes a line Massie has now leaned on repeatedly since Melania Trump’s made a surprise April 9 White House address on the Epstein controversy. In that statement, the first lady denied she had had any relationship with Epstein or his convicted accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, and declared, “Epstein was not alone.”
She went on to call on Congress to hold a public hearing so survivors could testify under oath, with their accounts entered into the congressional record.
Massie has seized on that line ever since. On NBC’s Meet the Press in May, he told host Kristen Welker, “Even Melania doesn’t believe that. The first lady knows that Jeffrey Epstein didn’t act alone.”
He has used the argument to hammer acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel, accusing them of over-redacting records and dismissing the possibility that more names remain to be pursued.
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Massie co-sponsored the Epstein Files Transparency Act with Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA). The bill was signed into law in November 2025 and forced the release of more than three million pages of Justice Department records.
His alignment with the first lady is politically awkward for a White House that has otherwise treated the Epstein saga as closed. The president backed a primary challenger, Ed Gallrein, who defeated Massie in Kentucky’s 4th District Republican primary on May 19.
Massie has vowed to use his remaining months in Congress to name additional figures he believes are implicated in the files, including billionaires Leon Black, Jes Staley, and Leslie Wexner.
Epstein died in a federal jail cell in August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. Maxwell was convicted in 2021 and is serving a 20-year federal sentence.
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