The family of a key survivor of Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse is urging President Donald Trump not to consider clemency for the late financier’s co-conspirator and confidant Ghislaine Maxwell.
The family of Virginia Roberts Giuffre, a sexual abuse advocate who died by suicide in April, made their plea to Trump in a public statement Wednesday after he told reporters that Epstein, a convicted sex offender, “stole” Giuffre from his Mar-A-Lago club, where she worked as a locker-room attendant at the age of 16 during the summer of 2000.
Giuffre’s family called that admission by Trump “shocking,” while questioning whether Trump was aware of Epstein’s and Maxwell’s actions.
“It was shocking to hear President Trump invoke our sister and say that he was aware that Virginia had been ‘stolen’ from Mar-a-Lago. It makes us ask if he was aware of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s criminal actions, especially given his statement two years later that his good friend Jeffrey ‘likes women on the younger side . . . no doubt about it.’ We and the public are asking for answers; survivors deserve this,” the family added.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt responded Wednesday night saying Trump referenced Giuffre in response to a question from a reporter about her.
“He did not bring her up. The fact remains that President Trump kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his club for being a creep to his female employees,” Leavitt said in a statement.
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In their statement, the family also said that it was Maxwell who “targeted and preyed” on Giuffre while she was working at Mar-a-Lago.
“We would like to clarify that it was convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell who targeted and preyed upon our then 16-year-old sister, Virginia, from Mar-a-Lago, where she was working in 2000, several years before Epstein and President Trump had their falling out,” they said.
The Justice Department declined to comment when asked about the Giuffre family statement.
Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for her role recruiting and trafficking minors for sex, met with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche last week as the Trump administration seeks additional information pertaining to Epstein’s case. While her attorney, David Oscar Markus, said on Friday there have been “no asks and no promises” regarding clemency, he told reporters Maxwell “would welcome any relief.”
When asked last week about pardoning Maxwell, Trump said he hadn’t thought about it, but noted that he’s “allowed to do it.” The family of Giuffre, one of the earliest and most prominent voices to call for charges against Epstein and Maxwell, said any leniency extended toward Maxwell would “go down in history as being one of the highest travesties of justice.”
“The government and the President should never consider giving Ghislaine Maxwell any leniency,” the family said.
“Ghislaine Maxwell is a monster who deserves to rot in prison for the rest of her life for the extraordinary violence and abuse she put not just our sister Virginia through, but many other survivors, who may number in the thousands.”
A senior administration official told NBC News after the Giuffre family’s statement that “no leniency is being given or discussed.”
“The President himself has said that clemency for Maxwell is not something he is even thinking about at this time,” the official said.
