Trump says he doesn't know why Epstein took young women from Mar-a-Lago
President Donald Trump said Thursday he didn't know why a convicted sex offender was taking women from his Mar-a-Lago club, which, he said, had caused him to break off relations with his longtime friend Jeffrey Epstein.
Asked by ABC News at an executive order signing if he knew why the disgraced financier was taking women from his club, the president replied, "No, I don't know really why, but I said, if he's taken anybody from Mar-a-Lago, he's hiring or whatever he's doing, I didn't like it. And we threw him out."
Those comments came after the family of Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein's most well-known victims, said it was outraged at comments Trump made a day earlier about her and Ghislaine Maxwell, the Epstein associate convicted of sex trafficking.
Trump on Wednesday told reporters that Giuffre, who died by suicide in April, may have been one of several employees at his Mar-a-Lago club who were "stolen" by Epstein.
"I think she worked at the spa. I think so. I think that was one of the people," Trump said of Giuffre. "He stole her. And by the way, she had no complaints about us, as you know, none whatsoever."
Giuffre's family in its statement rejected the characterization, saying she wasn't "stolen" by Epstein.
"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," the family said.
Trump’s comments came amid growing calls for federal authorities to release records related to the Epstein case. Democrats in the Senate on Wednesday said they are attempting to force the release of those files through a little-known, decades-old law.
Giuffre's family in their statement said it was "shocking" to hear Trump discuss Giuffre, saying he was aware of her being "stolen." Their statement called into question whether the president knew at that time about Epstein and Maxwell's actions.
"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,'" the family said in its statement, referencing a quote attributed to Trump in a 2002 New York Magazine profile of Epstein.
The family added, "We and the public are asking for answers; survivors deserve this."
Epstein was arrested in July 2019 on federal charges of sex trafficking. He died by suicide that August while in custody, federal authorities said.
Maxwell was convicted in 2021 of sex trafficking and sentenced the following year to 20 years in prison. The Department of Justice said she "assisted, facilitated, and participated" in Epstein's abuse of girls between 1994 and 2004.
Giuffre had said that Maxwell recruited Virginia from Mar-a-Lago when she was 16 -- and also accused Maxwell of abusing her. Maxwell denied the allegations levelled against her and claimed in a 2016 deposition that Giuffre had "lied repeatedly."
Maxwell this month met with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, answering questions for about nine hours over two days, sources told ABC News. Maxwell initiated those meetings with the Department of Justice, sources said.
Giuffre's family in its statement said Virginia would be "most angered" by those meetings, adding that the "government is listening to a known perjurer. A woman who repeatedly lied under oath and will continue to do so as long as it benefits her position."
The family described Maxwell as a "monster who deserves to rot in prison for the rest of her life."
Trump was asked on Monday about whether Maxwell could be pardoned.
"Well, I'm allowed to give her a pardon," Trump said. "But nobody's approached me with it, nobody's asked me about it. It's in the news, that -- that aspect of it. But right now, it would be inappropriate to talk about it."
