Former President Donald Trump revealed new details Tuesday about his split with Jeffrey Epstein, stating that he expelled the disgraced financier from Mar-a-Lago after learning he was recruiting young women from the club’s spa. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump claimed Epstein “stole people that worked for me,” including Virginia Giuffre, who later accused Epstein and others of sexual abuse.
“I have a great spa at Mar-a-Lago,” Trump said. “People were taken out of the spa, hired by him. When I heard about it, I said, ‘Out of here.’” Trump explained that he had warned Epstein not to take his employees, but after the behavior continued, he was permanently banned. He noted that Giuffre never had any complaints about her time at Mar-a-Lago, where she worked while her father served as a maintenance manager.
Virginia Giuffre reportedly met Epstein’s associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, in 2000 when she was just 16 years old. Maxwell offered her a job as a traveling masseuse, which led to years of abuse, according to Giuffre’s public allegations. She filed a defamation suit against Maxwell in 2015, which was settled in 2017 for an undisclosed amount.
Documents from Giuffre’s case were partially unsealed just before Epstein’s 2019 death in jail, where he was awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. Though she played a major role in the case, Giuffre later acknowledged inconsistencies in her account and settled another defamation suit with attorney Alan Dershowitz in 2022.
Amid renewed scrutiny over his past association with Epstein, Trump emphasized that he had severed ties “for years” due to Epstein’s inappropriate conduct. He also denied ever visiting Epstein’s island and said no one had asked him about a potential pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell.
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