President Donald Trump has accused Jeffrey Epstein of “stole” young women who worked for the spa at Mar-a-Lago, a reference to his relationship with the notorious sex trafficker Virginia Giuffre. Trump’s comments come after he banned Epstein from his private club in Florida two decades ago because his friend “stole people that worked for me.” The Republican president has faced criticism over his administration’s refusal to release more records about Epstein after promises of transparency, a rare example of strain within Trump’s tightly controlled political coalition.
Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s imprisoned former girlfriend, was recently interviewed by the Justice Department’s No. 2 official in a Florida courthouse. Her lawyers said she is willing to answer more questions from Congress if she is granted immunity from future prosecution for her testimony. Giuffre died by suicide earlier this year and claimed that Maxwell spotted her working as a spa attendant at Mar-a-Lago in 2000, when she was a teenager, and hired her as Epstein’s masseuse, leading to sexual abuse.
Maxwell, who has denied Giuffre’s allegations, is serving a 20-year prison sentence in a Florida federal prison for conspiring with Epstein to sexually abuse underage girls. A spokeswoman for the House Oversight Committee, which requested the interview with Maxwell, said the panel would not consider granting the immunity she requested.
Maxwell’s attorneys have urged the Supreme Court to review her conviction and suggest that one way she would testify “openly and honestly, in public,” is in the event of a pardon by Trump.
