Trump has given more details about the events that led to his falling out with America’s most notorious paedophile, Jeffrey Epstein – and a well-known victim he claims Epstein “stole” from him
Donald Trump has claimed Jeffrey Epstein “stole” his most well-known victim from him.
The US President described for the first time during his trip to Scotland on Monday the events that led to his falling out with former friend Epstein.
He told reporters during a Q&A session with Keir Starmer that the bust-up had been caused by Epstein doing something “inappropriate” – namely, poaching staff from him.
Trump said he’d told him not to do it once, but that Epstein had repeated the behaviour, and so he’d ordered him to stay away from his Mar A Lago club in Florida’s Palm Beach.
As the Mirror noted the same day, Epstein’s most well known victim, Virginia Giuffre, was allegedly ‘hired’ by Ghislaine Maxwell for Epstein while she was working in Trump’s spa at Mar A Lago.
And flying back to Washington from Scotland last night on Air Force One, Trump confirmed she was one of the people he’d been talking about the previous day.
Trump has faced an outcry over his refusal to release more records about Epstein after promises of transparency, a rare example of strain within Trump World.
Maxwell, who is currently serving 20 years for trafficking young girls for Epstein, was interviewed inside a Florida courthouse by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche – who was previously Trump’s personal lawyer.
The Justice Department has not revealed what he and Maxwell discussed.
Her lawyers said Tuesday that she’s willing to answer more questions from Congress if she is granted immunity from future prosecution for her testimony and if lawmakers agree to satisfy other conditions.
During his trip to Scotland, Trump repeatedly refused to rule out offering Maxwell a presidential pardon.
Aboard Air Force One last night, Trump said he was upset that Epstein was “taking people who worked for me.”
The women, he said, were “taken out of the spa, hired by him – in other words, gone.”
“I said, listen, we don’t want you taking our people,” Trump said. When it happened again, Trump said he banned Epstein from Mar-a-Lago.
Asked if Giuffre was one of the employees poached by Epstein, he demurred but then said “he stole her.”
The White House originally said Trump banned Epstein from Mar-a-Lago because he was acting like a “creep.”
Giuffre died by suicide earlier this year. She claimed that Maxwell spotted her working as a spa attendant at Mar-a-Lago in 2000, when she was a teenager, and hired her as Epstein’s masseuse, which led to sexual abuse.
It’s thought Trump’s friendship with Epstein broke down years later, around 2004.
Although Giuffre’s allegations did not become part of criminal prosecutions against Epstein, she is central to conspiracy theories about the case. She accused Epstein of pressuring her into having sex with powerful men.
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.
A spokeswoman for the House Oversight Committee, which requested the interview with Maxwell, said the panel would not consider granting the immunity she requested.
The potential interview is part of a frenzied, renewed interest in the Epstein saga following the Justice Department’s statement earlier this month that it would not be releasing any additional records from the investigation, an abrupt announcement that stunned online sleuths, conspiracy theorists and elements of Trump’s political base who had been hoping to find proof of a government coverup.
Since then, the Trump administration has sought to present itself as promoting transparency, with the department urging courts to unseal grand jury transcripts from the sex-trafficking investigations. A judge in Florida last week rejected the request, though similar requests are pending in New York.
In a letter Tuesday, Maxwell’s attorneys said that though their initial instinct was for Maxwell to invoke her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, they are open to having her cooperate provided that lawmakers satisfy their request for immunity and other conditions.
But the Oversight Committee seemed to reject that offer outright.
READ MORE: How Donald Trump turned the White House into a tacky gold palace full of trinkets in 100 days
“The Oversight Committee will respond to Ms. Maxwell’s attorney soon, but it will not consider granting congressional immunity for her testimony,” a spokesperson said.
Separately, Maxwell’s attorneys have urged the Supreme Court to review her conviction, saying she did not receive a fair trial. They also say that one way she would testify “openly and honestly, in public,” is in the event of a pardon by Trump, who has told reporters that such a move is within his rights but that he has not been not asked to do it.
“She welcomes the opportunity to share the truth and to dispel the many misconceptions and misstatements that have plagued this case from the beginning,” the lawyers said.
