Melania Trump email to Ghislaine Maxwell is real. Here's the exchange with context

In the early months of 2026, social media users alleged an image authentically showed an October 2002 email sent from Melania Trump — who went by Melania Knauss prior to her 2005 marriage to future U.S. President Donald Trump — to Ghislaine Maxwell, an associate of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. 

The message in the image showed the future first lady praising Maxwell and Epstein for appearing in New York magazine, telling Maxwell, "You look great on the picture." She also expressed interest in traveling back to Palm Beach, Florida, the site of an Epstein residence and Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club, and asked Maxwell to give her a call upon Maxwell's return to New York.

In short, the email was authentic, and as a result we've rated the claim true. 

The message appeared in a PDF (archived) available through the Justice Department's Epstein files library with the file name EFTA02332411. Melania Trump also verified herself as the sender of the email in an April 9, 2026, statement, in which she denied ties to Epstein, who was later convicted of sex crimes, and Maxwell, later convicted on similar charges including sex trafficking, as well as involvement in their criminal activities. She labeled any images and stories depicting her engaging in the pair's sex crimes as "completely false," as well as calling such rumors "unfound and baseless lies."

Regarding the email, Melania Trump said in her statement, "To be clear, I never had a relationship with Epstein or his accomplice Maxwell. My email reply to Maxwell cannot be categorized as anything more than casual correspondence. My polite reply to her email doesn't amount to anything more than a trivial note."

The bottom of Maxwell's response (archived) to Melania Trump's email, detailed later in this article, displayed information suggesting the message in some way involved an email address controlled by a man named Doug Band. In Band's LinkedIn profile (archived), he described himself as having worked in former President Bill Clinton's White House as well as "the key architect of Clinton's post-Presidency." It's unclear from the email's displayed code whether Melania Trump sent her email to Maxwell via the Clinton-owned email address, or whether Band's email address appeared in the message for some other reason.

Snopes contacted Band, as well as representatives for Melania Trump and Maxwell, to ask about the inclusion of the Clinton-associated email address in Maxwell's response to Melania Trump. We will update this article if we receive further information.

In this article, we researched the original message and Maxwell's response, as well as the purported ties to a Clinton-owned email address.

Researching the Melania Trump email

The X account of Headquarters (@HQNewsNow) — a "progressive content hub" former Vice President Kamala Harris founded in February 2026 — reposted (archived) the decades-old Melania Trump email to Maxwell on April 9, 2026. Other users shared the message on Facebook (archived), Threads (archived) and X (archived).

Melania Trump's Oct. 23, 2002, email read as follows:

Dear G!

How are you?

Nice story about JE in NY mag. You look great on the picture.

I know you are very busy flying all over the world. How was Palm Beach? I cannot wait to go down. Give me a call when you are back in NY.

Have a great time!

Love,

Melania

Although Melania Trump referred to the email as a reply in her statement, it did not appear to follow another message in an email chain or have other obvious indicators of being a reply, such as "Re:" in the subject line.

In a response dated the same day, Maxwell wrote:

Sweet pea - thanks for your message. Actually plans changed again and I am now on my way back to NY. I leave again on Fri so I still do not think I have time to see you sadly. I will try and call though.

Keep well

Gx

Weeks after the email exchange, on Nov. 11, Melania Knauss and Donald Trump appeared in a photo with Maxwell and British model Naomi Campbell while attending the opening of a Dolce & Gabbana location, according to the image's caption on Getty Images, a reputable photojournalism database.

(Thos Robinson, accessed via Getty Images)

In Melania Trump's April 2026 statement, she said, "Donald and I were invited to the same parties as Epstein from time to time, since overlapping in social circles is common in New York City and Palm Beach."

Email address with ties to Bill Clinton

While looking for any further emails from Melania Trump, Snopes found the Justice Department PDF documenting Maxwell's response to Melania Trump featured a redacted email address with the unredacted display name of "WJC wjc." Other emails in Epstein's federal case files linked the "WJC wjc" name to the address "wjc@imcingular.com."

An Oct. 4, 2001, email showed Band, the Clinton associate, emailing Maxwell. That email specifically mentioned Band as managing the "wjc@imcingular.com" address, as did a separate message.

In the email, Band told Maxwell he shared the email address with the former president:

you back? another way to get in touch with me quicker is on my blackbery - actually the presidnet's but we share it

wjc@imcingular.com

For context, in December 2020, Vanity Fair reported that in the past Clinton didn't carry a phone or use email, and that, "Because Clinton didn't carry a cell phone or use email, anyone who wanted to speak to Clinton had to go through Band."

Days after Melania Trump and Maxwell exchanged emails, on Oct. 28, 2002, another "WJC wjc" email appearing to show Band messaging Maxwell's MindSpring email address aligned with a genuine Clinton campaign event in Kauai, Hawaii, as part of an effort to boost Democratic Party voter numbers for that year's elections.

Further research of the "WJC wjc" display name located messages with sexually oriented conversations. In April 2002, "WJC wjc" displayed as the sender of the message that read "I like naughties," and included a phone number matching that of Clinton's New York office fax machine. A different email from the same day also mentioned "naughties," Band and Maxwell. An August 2002 email from the "WJC wjc" address showed a sender messaging Maxwell — a fact confirmed by cross-referencing domain and IP address data with a poorly redacted email — with the message, "I want to spank bottoms tonight."

The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform requested Band attend an in-person transcribed interview in Washington on May 5, 2026, relating to his alleged knowledge of Epstein's and Maxwell's sex crimes.

For further reading, we previously reported that Donald Trump truly called Epstein a "terrific guy," adding, "It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side." The quotes appeared in the very same New York magazine article Melania Trump referenced in her email to Maxwell.