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ago
21.59 BST
Trump
says he broke with Epstein for hiring away young women from Mar-a-Lago and
'stole' Virginia Giuffre
Donald
Trump told reporters on Air Force One that he broke with Jeffrey Epstein, the
late sex offender he socialized with for more than a decade, after he hired
young, female spa attendants away from Mar-a-Lago, including Virginia Giuffre,
who became one of Epstein’s most prominent accusers.
Trump was
asked to elaborate on his claim, on Monday in Scotland, that he kicked Epstein
out of his club “because he did something that was inappropriate”, specifically
“he stole people that worked for me”. On the flight back to Washington from
Scotland on Tuesday, one reporter asked Trump if “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,
who said in a legal 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.
Trump
replied: “I think so, I think that was one of the people, yeah. He stole her”.
Senior
White House aides have repeatedly suggested in recent weeks that Trump broke
with Epstein around 2004, and expelled him from the Mar-a-Lago club for
inappropriate behavior of a sexual nature. 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.
His claim
that one of those employees was the 16-year-old Virginia 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, and made a point
of his friend’s taste for young women. “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.
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