President Trump on Tuesday doubled down on allegations that Jeffrey Epstein “stole” young women who worked for his Mar-a-Lago spa, claiming that one of those employees was sex abuse accuser Virginia Giuffre, a teenager at the time.
On Monday, the president accused his former friend of poaching his employees from his south Florida club, before clarifying Tuesday that Giuffre was among the workers he lost.
“He took people,” Trump said Tuesday in another attempt to distance himself from Epstein and describe how their highly scrutinized relationship ended decades ago. “When they steal people, I don’t like that.”
The president claimed he warned Epstein not to poach people who worked for him, saying he eventually banned the financier from his club for doing just that.
When asked if Giuffre was one of those people, Trump recalled that she worked in his spa.
“I think that was one of the people, yeah. He stole her,” Trump said.
Giuffre worked for Trump at Mar-a-Lago when she was 17, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. That’s where she said she developed a relationship with Epstein’s assistant Ghislaine Maxwell before going to work as a private masseuse. She claimed Epstein then trafficked her to his influential associates, including Britain’s Prince Andrew.
Giuffre died from suicide in April at the age of 41, according to her family. Prior to her death, she’d been one of the most vocal Epstein accusers, becoming central to conspiracy theories about the case, though her allegations were never part of the criminal prosecutions against the late billionaire.
Trump has not been charged with any crimes connected to Epstein and Maxwell’s activities, though his closeness with the couple came under scrutiny after prosecutors began looking at the case when he began his second term in January.
The president has continued to claim that he and Epstein had a falling out, and numerous explanations for their split have been offered.
White House officials have said Epstein was banished from Mar-a-Lago for being a “creep,” while the Washington Post reported in 2019 that Trump and Epstein clashed over a 2004 real estate deal that may have soured their friendship.
With News Wire Services
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