President Donald Trump’s remarks that Jeffrey Epstein “stole” Virginia Giuffre and other young women who worked at the spa at the president’s Mar-a-Lago club, causing the end of their friendship, have come under scrutiny.
Trump on Tuesday expanded on remarks he made a day earlier, when he said he banned Epstein from his club because he “stole people that worked for me.”
Asked by a reporter aboard Air Force One if Giuffre, who was among Epstein’s most well-known accusers and died by suicide in April, was among the workers poached by Epstein, Trump said: “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.”
However, some have pointed out discrepancies in Trump’s account, noting that the president continued to associate with Epstein long after Giuffre was hired away from Mar-a-Lago.
Newsweek has contacted the White House for comment via an email sent outside regular business hours.
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The Context
Trump’s personal relationship with Epstein has come under renewed scrutiny after the Department of Justice announced earlier in July that it would not be releasing more records about Epstein, despite previous promises to do so. Authorities have said Epstein, a wealthy financier and convicted sex offender, died by suicide behind bars in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
The decision angered many of Trump’s supporters who believe the files will reveal a cover-up in the case to protect Epstein’s wealthy and powerful friends. The president has attempted to tamp down questions about the case, expressing annoyance that people are still talking about it six years after Epstein’s death.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Attorney General Pam Bondi had told Trump that his name was in the files, during a May briefing. Trump has never been accused of wrongdoing in connection with Epstein and the inclusion of someone’s name in files from the investigation does not imply otherwise.
What To Know
The White House had recently offered a different reason for the falling out between the president and Epstein. “The fact is that the President kicked him out of his club for being a creep,” White House communications director Steven Cheung told Newsweek last week.
But Trump’s comments casting the break as motivated by anger at having employees poached by a friend paint a different picture of their falling out.
His claim that Giuffre was among the workers taken from Mar-a-Lago have come under particular scrutiny.
Giuffre said in a 2016 deposition that she worked at Mar-a-Lago in the summer of 2000, when she was 16. She said in a lawsuit that Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s imprisoned former girlfriend, had recruited her into Epstein’s sex trafficking operation after spotting her working there. Maxwell, who has denied Giuffre’s allegations, is serving a 20-year-prison sentence in a Florida federal prison for conspiring with Epstein to sexually abuse underage girls.
As law professor Ryan Goodman noted on X, Trump spoke highly of Epstein years after Giuffre was hired away from Mar-a-Lago.
“I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy,” Trump was quoted as saying in a New York magazine profile of Epstein published in October 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.”
Earlier this month, The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump allegedly sent Epstein a sexually suggestive letter that was included in a 2003 album for Epstein’s 50th birthday. Trump has denied writing the letter, and is suing the newspaper and its billionaire owner Rupert Murdoch for defamation.
Reporting by The Washington Post said public sightings of Trump and Epstein ended in 2004 and that their relationship had fractured over a real estate deal that year.
Epstein was formally banned from Mar-a-Lago in 2007 after he hit on the teenage daughter of another club member, according to The Grifter’s Club, a book by Sarah Blaskey, an investigative reporter for the Miami Herald, that was published in 2020. Epstein was on the club’s membership rolls until October 2007, a year after he was first arrested, the book said.
In 2008, Epstein pleaded guilty to one state count of solicitation of prostitution and one of solicitation of prostitution from a minor, and was sentenced to 18 months in jail.
In July 2019, Epstein was arrested in New York where he faced federal charges of sex trafficking of minors and conspiracy concerning alleged abuse of multiple “underage girls” from 2002 to 2005.
What People Are Saying
Trump said on Monday: “For years I wouldn’t talk to Jeffrey Epstein. I wouldn’t talk because he did something that was inappropriate. He hired help, and I said don’t ever do that again. He stole people that worked for me. I said don’t ever do that again. He did it again, and I threw him out of the place, persona non grata, I threw him out and that was it. I’m glad I did if you want to know the truth.”
Asked if any of the workers were young women, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Tuesday: “The answer is yes, they were … people that worked in the spa.”
He confirmed that Giuffre was among them saying: “I think she worked at the spa. 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.”
Ryan Goodman, a professor at NYU School of Law, wrote on X: “So Trump didn’t kick [Epstein] out for many years after knowing Epstein ‘stole’ Virginia Giuffre from MAL in 2000.”
Writer and podcast host Wajahat Ali wrote on X: “Trump didn’t break with Epstein over being a sex predator and a pedophile. All that was fine. It’s because Maxwell ‘stole’ Virginia Giuffre from him. Disgusting.”
What’s Next
The president is likely to continuing facing questions about the timing and nature of his fallout with Epstein.
