Donald Trump suggested on Tuesday that Jeffrey Epstein, the late sex offender he socialized with for more than a decade, “stole” Virginia Giuffre and other young female staffers whom he hired away from the president’s Mar-a-Lago country club.
Speaking to reporters onboard Air Force One as he returned to Washington from Scotland, Trump was asked to elaborate on his earlier comments about falling out with Epstein because he took employees from his business. The president said on Monday that he had kicked Epstein out of his club “because he did something that was inappropriate” – specifically, that “he stole people that worked for me”.
Senior White House aides have repeatedly suggested in recent weeks that Trump broke with Epstein in about 2004 and expelled him from the Mar-a-Lago club for inappropriate behavior of a sexual nature. In a statement last week, spokesperson Steven Cheung said Trump “kicked him out of his club for being a creep”.
The president’s account of the break being motivated by pique at having his employees poached by his friend cast the break in a different light.
On Tuesday, a reporter asked Trump: “The workers that were taken from you – were some of them young women?”
Trump replied: “The answer is yes, they were. People that worked in the spa.”
Another reporter then asked if Trump one of the people he was referring to was Giuffre, one of Epstein’s most prominent accusers who said in a sworn complaint that she was hired away from the Mar-a-Lago spa by Epstein’s accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell in 2000, when she was 16.
Giuffre, who died this year, alleged in her complaint that she was first abused by Epstein and Maxwell together, and then “lent out to other powerful men”, including Prince Andrew.
“I think she worked at the spa,” Trump replied. “I think so. I think that was one of the people, yeah. He stole her. And by the way, she had no complaints about us, as you know. None whatsoever.”
The president and his administration are working desperately to change the subject away from Epstein – an issue that has lately roiled his base. But his latest claim that one of those employees was the 16-year-old Giuffre also complicates the timeline. Giuffre was hired away from Mar-a-Lago in 2000, but two years later, Trump spoke highly of Epstein to a reporter.
“I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy,” Trump told New York magazine in late 2002. “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.”
Sarah Blaskey, a Miami Herald investigative reporter, also pointed out in her 2020 book on Mar-a-Lago that Epstein remained on the membership rolls of Mar-a-Lago until October 2007, more than a year after he was first arrested and charged with soliciting prostitution from a minor.
Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for conspiring with Epstein to sexually traffic minors, has offered to testify before Congress but has asked lawmakers to give her immunity, along with other major conditions, according to a list of demands sent to the House oversight committee by her attorneys, seen by CNN.
Lauren Gambino contributed reporting
