WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump suggested Tuesday that a high profile alleged victim of Jeffrey Epstein, Virginia Giuffre, was among the staff members that Epstein poached from his Mar-a-Lago resort.
The president discussed the convicted sex offender, who died in a Manhattan prison from apparent suicide in 2019, as he spoke to reporters aboard Air Force One on his way back from Scotland on Tuesday. He shared that he and Epstein, who were formerly friends, fell out over Epstein’s focus on Trump’s employees.
“People were taken out of the spa, hired by him. In other words, gone,” Trump told reporters. “When I heard about it, I told him, I said, listen, we don’t want you taking our people, whether it’s spa or not spa … and he was fine. And not too long after, he did it again. And I said, outta here.”
“I have a great spa,” the president added. “One of the best spas in the world at Mar-a-Lago.”
Trump had said on Monday that he ended his relationship with Epstein after Epstein “stole people who worked” for him. Asked by a reporter if one of those individuals who Epstein “stole” was Giuffre, who died by suicide in April, Trump responded: “I think so. I think that was one of the people.”
“He stole her,” added Trump, noting, “And by the way, she had no complaints about us whatsoever.”
Trump’s comments come after legacy outlets broke the news that during a May briefing on the Epstein case, Attorney General Pam Bondi told Trump that his name, and the names of other high-profile figures, came up in her examination of the Epstein documents that are not public.
It was already publicly reported that Trump’s name appears in the Epstein documents, given that public files include his name and hundreds of others. The two men were openly friendly before they fell out (reportedly because Trump found Epstein to be a “creep”) and Epstein was no longer welcome at Mar-A-Lago, administration officials previously shared with The Daily Wire.
Asked by reporters whether he stopped being friends with Epstein because he was a creep or because he was stealing employees, Trump responded: “Well maybe they’re the same thing, sort of a little bit of the same thing. He took people that worked for me and I told him don’t do it anymore, and he did it, so I said stay the hell out of here.”
Donald Trump and his then-girlfriend, former model Melania Knauss, financier Jeffrey Epstein, and British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell pose together at the Mar-a-Lago club, Palm Beach, Florida, February 12, 2000. (Photo by Davidoff Studios/Getty Images)
“As part of our routine briefing, we made the president aware of the findings,” Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, shared in a joint statement. “Nothing in the files warranted further investigation or prosecution.”
The Justice Department posted a July 7 memo declaring that after an “exhaustive review” of the Epstein files, it had found no incriminating “client list” or “credible evidence” that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals. “No further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted,” the DOJ said, sparking massive backlash from both the Left and the Right.
Amid ongoing criticism and calls for more transparency, Blanche revealed that he would interview Epstein’s infamous cohort Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20 year sentence for sex trafficking.
“If Ghislane Maxwell has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims, the FBI and the DOJ will hear what she has to say,” Blanche said.
Mairead Elordi contributed to this report.