Marina Lacerda, who said she was sexually trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein for years, starting at age 14, was among the late pedophile’s survivors to denounce Melania Trump’s surprise White House statement Thursday, in which the first lady denied she ever had a personal relationship with him and claims to care about his victims while saying they should come forward to testify.

In an Instagram post Thursday, Lacerda first questioned the timing of Melania Trump’s scripted statement to the nation, delivered from the same podium that President Donald Trump used to speak about the war in Iran last week.

Lacerda asked, “I am trying to understand what is really behind it” before saying directly to the first lady: “It sounds like you’re just trying to shift attention from something to something else. So, how does this benefit the Trump family, is my question.”

Lacerda, who also accused the first lady of wanting to “retraumatize” the survivors, was among a group of women who signed a joint statement issued to the media Thursday, the Daily Beast also reported. The survivors’ statement similarly said that Melania Trump was trying to shift “the burden” of responsibility onto them, by suggesting it was their responsibility to reveal the truth about the late financier’s alleged sex trafficking operation and the rich and powerful people involved, according to The Guardian.

In her statement, Melania Trump said that “each and every” victim of Epstein should come forward and “tell her story in public if she wishes.” She said, “Then, and only then, we will have the truth.”

But the survivors responded: “Survivors of Jeffrey Epstein have already shown extraordinary courage by coming forward, filing reports, and giving testimony. Asking more of them now is a deflection of responsibility, not justice.”

The statement also accused Trump’s Justice Department, under former attorney general Pam Bondi, of withholding files and exposing survivors’ identities. “Those failures continue to put lives at risk while shielding enablers,” the statement said. “Survivors have done their part. Now it’s time for those in power to do theirs.”

Melania Trump’s decision to deliver her statement at the White House sparked a whirlwind of speculation among journalists, pundits and regular people about why she felt compelled to finally speak out about Epstein and as an address to the nation. It also was unclear which specific. Epstein-related accusations had spurred such a response, The Guardian said.

Online, people joined Lacerda in asking whether Melania Trump was trying to help her husband’s administration “shift attention” from something else — perhaps unfavorable news about the war in Iran or about the economy. Others asked if the White House was trying to get ahead of what could be a damaging news story about Trump or his family’s ties to Epstein.

In her remarks, Melania Trump proclaimed: “The lies linking me with Jeffrey Epstein need to end today. I (have) never been friends with Epstein. I am not Epstein’s victim. Epstein did not introduce me to Donald Trump.”

It’s been publicly documented for years that Melania Trump and her husband socialized with Epstein and his jailed accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell in the early 2000s. Trump has said he cut ties with Epstein in the mid-2000s, before the financier negotiated a controversial plea deal in 2008, allowing him to plead guilty to state charges of soliciting a minor for sex and to serve just 13 months in a Florida jail with work release.

Earlier this year, Melania Trump’s name turned up in the Justice Department’s released Epstein files, according to The Independent. A complimentary email she sent to Maxwell in 2002 surfaced, and it referred to a famous profile about Epstein in New York magazine, headlined, “International Moneyman of Mystery.”

“Nice story about JE in NY mag,” Melania Trump wrote to Maxwell, according to The Independent. “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!”

The Daily Beast noted that this New York magazine profile is often mentioned in reports about Epstein because it includes a notorious quote from Trump, praising the financier, who died in a Manhattan jail in 2019. The then-real estate mogul told New York magazine: “He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”

In her remarks, Melania Trump specifically denied that her emails to Maxwell were anything more than “casual correspondence.” She said she met Epstein for the first time in 2000, at a party she attended with her husband. At the time she was a model known as Melania Knauss.

The first lady said that she and her husband were invited to the same parties as Epstein “from time to time,” as “overlapping in social circles is common in New York City and Palm Beach.” Both Trump and Epstein had homes in New York and Palm Beach.

The first lady emphasized that she “had no knowledge of his criminal undertakings. Numerous fake images and statements about Epstein and me have been calculating (sic) on social media for years now. Be cautious about what you believe.”

In her Instagram video, Lacerda said she was unclear about which “fake” images Melania Trump was referring, especially if they were images from the Epstein files. In an Instagram story, Lacerda posted multiple images of Melania Trump and her husband in the company of Epstein and Maxwell. Lacerda also tore into the first lady for her call for Epstein survivors to testify before Congress.

“We are supposed to testify in front of Congress under oath,” Lacerda said. “For what? Tell us why. Will it change anything? Will people be held accountable? We had the Transparency Act passed. We had the (Epstein) files dropped. We’ve got the names on the files.”

She continued, “Nobody has done nothing. But yet, you want to retraumatize us and ask us to go in front of Congress and tell them our story, which we have told some of them already. So now you want us to tell them again, under oath, and retraumatize us and then do absolutely nothing?”

“That sounds like a (expletive) idea,” Lacerda said.

In an interview with ABC News last, Lacerda said she first visited Epstein’s New York home in 2002 to provide massage services. She was 14 and that visit eventually led to years of abuse, the Daily Beast said.

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