President Donald Trump told reporters on Tuesday that he ended his friendship with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein after he “stole” female staffers from his spa at Mar-a-Lago.
Trump stated during an Air Force One flight that Epstein hired his spa workers at Mar-a-Lago on multiple occasions, despite him repeatedly telling the sex offender not to. He confirmed that some of those hired by Epstein were young women, including then-17-year-old Virginia Giuffre.
“Everyone knows the people that were taken and it was the concept of taking people that work for me is bad,” Trump said. “But that story has been pretty well out there, and yes, they were [young women] … People were taken out of the spa, hired by [Epstein]. In other words, gone. And other people would come and complain ‘this guy is taking people from the spa,’ I didn’t know that. And when I heard about it, I told him, ‘listen, we don’t want you taking our people, whether it was spa or not [the] spa.’ I don’t want him taking people, and he was fine. Then not too long after that, he did it again and I said, ‘[you’re] out of here.’”
A reporter then asked Trump if Giuffre was one of the people hired from the spa. (RELATED: Trump Noncommittal When Asked About Ghislaine Maxwell Pardon)
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“I don’t know. I think she worked at the spa. I think so, I think that was one of the people, yeah. He stole her. And by the way, she had no complaints about us, as you know. None whatsoever,” the president continued.
Trump further said that Epstein’s hiring spree was “the end” of his time at Mar-a-Lago.
“I don’t want to say any number, you’re talking about a number of years ago. But yeah, he took people and I said ‘don’t do it anymore, they work for me.’ And he took beyond that, he took some others. And once he did that, that was the end of him,” Trump continued.
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Giuffre, a leading voice against Epstein, alleged that she was recruited by his longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell to perform sexual acts. She alleged during a December 2019 interview with the BBC that Prince Andrew sexually abused her three times at Epstein and Maxwell’s residences when she was 17, which the prince denied. Giuffre committed suicide in April at the age of 41.
Trump previously stated that he ended his friendship with Epstein after the two had a falling out in 2004 over his purchase of a property in Palm Beach, Florida, according to The New York Times. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told The New York Times that Trump barred Epstein from Mar-a-Lago “for being a creep.”
Previous reports have also suggested that Trump banned Epstein from Mar-a-Lago for making advances toward another member’s teenage daughter.
Trump said during a joint press conference with United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday that any incriminating evidence against him in the Epstein files would have been released by former President Joe Biden’s administration to boost Democrats’ chances in the 2024 election.
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