First lady Melania Trump said people are trying to "defame" her reputation by pushing "lies" about her and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, addressing what she said are "false smears" in an extraordinary public address at the White House on Thursday.

The House Oversight Committee also will interview billionaire Ted Waitt about his dealings with Epstein on April 30.

Billionaire Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, is expected to testify before a congressional committee about his ties to Jeffrey Epstein.

By Bo Erickson WASHINGTON, April 9 (Reuters) - First lady Melania Trump denied on Thursday that she had any relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and said she was not one of his victims, thrusting the Epstein matter back into the spotlight after her husband had sought to put it behind him.

Tech billionaire Bill Gates is the latest high-profile name to testify before Congress about his connections to Jeffrey Epstein.

While Epstein was on work release from a Florida jail nearly 20 years ago, he had sex in a vehicle in the prison parking lot, according to a FBI interview.

Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates will appear before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on June 10 for an interview about his dealings with the late billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein,

The federal government’s online Epstein library contains a five-page handwritten report of an FBI interview with an inmate who awoke the morning of Aug. 10, 2019 to the loud commotion in the Special Housing Unit, or SHU, where he and Epstein were jailed. “Breathe! Breathe!” he recalled officers shouting about 6:30 a.m.