Latest news with #BradleyEdwards
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Epstein Was Still a Member of Trump's Mar-a-Lago Long After He Was Indicted
Jeffrey Epstein continued to be a member of Donald Trump's luxury private members club for more than a year after the billionaire financier was indicted, according to Mar-a-Lago membership documents seen by the authors of a book. The president told reporters that he cut ties with Epstein after the pedophile 'stole' female workers from his exclusive Florida members club, but the revelation that Epstein was allegedly still a member of the club seven years after Epstein poached Virginia Giuffre from the spa at Mar-a-Lago in 2000 raises questions over Trump's version of events. Epstein was a member of the club until October 2007, more than a year after he was indicted and released on bail, according to The Grifter's Club: Trump, Mar-a-Lago, and the Selling of the Presidency. In the footnotes of their book, the team of Miami Herald journalists Sarah Blaskey, Caitlin Ostroff, Nicholas Nehamas, and Jay Weaver reported: 'The authors viewed a membership list showing that Epstein's account had been closed.' The book reports that the 'membership log shows his account at the club was closed in October 2007.' A report in the New York Post in the same month quoted a source saying he had been banned. 'He would use the spa to try to procure girls. But one of them, a masseuse about 18 years old, he tried to get her to do things,' a source told Page Six. 'Her father found out about it and went absolutely ape-[bleep]. Epstein's not allowed back.' Guiffre's attorney Bradley Edwards stated in a 2009 court filing that Epstein had been banned by Trump from Mar-a-Lago 'because Epstein sexually assaulted an underage girl at the club,' although he did not specify when the assault was alleged to have happened. Edwards was approached for comment. It is not known whether Epstein visited Mar-a-Lago while on bail. The New York Post said in the same article that Epstein denied he was banned even then and told them that he had 'recently [been] invited to an event there,' although he did not name the event. The banishment of Epstein came 15 months after he was indicted by a Florida grand jury and surrendered at the Palm Beach precinct to be charged in July 2006. Only one count of soliciting prostitution was filed against him at the time, but the case drew widespread media coverage, which disclosed allegations of his sexual contact with minors. The South Florida Sun Sentinel reported on July 26, 2006, that Epstein had been accused of 'fondling and—in one case—having sex with underage girls whom he paid for massages.' It added that detectives had recommended he 'be charged with four counts of committing an unlawful sex act on a minor and one count of lewd and lascivious molestation.' Florida's Palm Beach Post reported extensively on the case—at least 14 times, according to newspaper cuttings service Factiva—in the 15 months between his July 2006 charge and October 2007, when Epstein was reportedly culled from Mar-a-Lago. In total, Factiva records 175 stories about Epstein in that same period. Many of the reports stated that Epstein had been released on a $3,000 bail bond. The New York Post and Fox News were among the outlets to report that girls as young as 14 had been targeted. Trump is known to be a voracious consumer of both outlets. The Daily Beast asked the White House and Mar-a-Lago whether Trump and the club had been aware Epstein had been charged and been on bail in the 15 months prior to his being removed from its membership list. They were also asked whether Epstein had attended, or been invited to, Mar-a-Lago while on bail, as he had claimed. At the time of publication, neither had offered a comment on the record. Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre—who took her own life earlier this year—said in a deposition for a lawsuit against Ghislaine Maxwell that she worked at Trump's club in the summer of 2000 when she was 17. It was later reported that Giuffre had been paid $1,866.50 by the resort that year, suggesting she was only employed briefly. The New York Daily News reported in 2015 that, a day after her first appointment with Epstein, she 'quit her job to become a full-time 'masseuse.'' When she first made her complaint against Epstein, Giuffre was unsure if it was 1999 or 2000 when she had worked at Trump's club. 'When I got my records from Mar-a-Lago, I was able to find out that it was 2000,' she said. Trump confirmed last week that Giuffre had been hired by Epstein after being approached at Mar-a-Lago. '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, none whatsoever,' he said. The president said he had fallen out with Epstein, who formerly described the president as his best friend, after learning that the financier was poaching people from Mar-a-Lago. 'When I heard about it, I told him, I said: 'Listen, we don't want you taking our people—whether it was spa or not spa—I don't want you to take our people. And he was fine, and then not too long after that, he did it again. And I said: 'Out of here!'' Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
26-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Bombshell Claim on Who Is Hiding Epstein's Birthday Book
A lawyer who has represented over 200 victims of Jeffrey Epstein says the existence of a book given to the sex offender for his 50th birthday is an 'absolute fact.' Attorney Bradley Edwards says the 2003 birthday book, which allegedly contains a letter from Donald Trump, is in the possession of the Epstein estate in Florida. The birthday book was revealed last week by The Wall Street Journal, which claimed that Donald Trump included a bawdy letter to his then-friend Epstein. It allegedly contained a sketch of a naked woman with a 'squiggly' signature of 'Donald' appearing below the woman's waist, as if to mimic pubic hair. The president has insisted the letter is 'fake' and is suing the publication. Speaking to Lawrence O'Donnell on MSNBC's The Last Word on Wednesday, the lawyer, who released the book, Relentless Pursuit: My Fight for the Victims of Jeffrey Epstein in 2020, said 'multiple' victims of the financier and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell that he represents had knowledge of the existence of the birthday book. 'I do know that they were involved in the assembly of the book, several of them,' Edwards said. 'They were told by Ghislaine to assist in putting the book together. Others have seen the book post-birthday and after it was assembled. So the existence of the book is an absolute fact.' Edwards said he knows the Epstein estate executors personally and believes they would happily hand over the item if issued with a subpoena by Congress. 'They would turn the book over immediately,' Edwards said. 'Nobody would have to guess. You would immediately have the answers. You could flip to the page. Is there a letter? Is there not a letter? It's over. The victims then get to move on. But that's not what's happening. Real people are being hurt here. The truth matters, transparency actually matters. Get this over with and get it behind us.' Edwards added that if the book does get released, 'it should probably be set in the Smithsonian as an artifact at this point in time.' 'It's going to go down in history,' he said. 'So that the world can see this book and they'll know who were Jeffrey Epstein's best friends at the time? What letters did his family write to him? What other pictures were in there? Redact victim names, release the book and move on.' The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment on the claims. 'Now, who wrote letters, what's in the book?' Edwards added. 'You're going to have to get the book to figure it out. But this isn't something that needs to be a mystery forever and drag the victims into all kinds of anxiety, for nothing. We can get that answer pretty quickly.' He continued, 'You have to remember that Jeffrey Epstein was abusing and exploiting young women and children every day of his life. So anybody that's around for any major events, such as the assembly of his 50th birthday book, they're going to have to be involved in assembling or playing their part, whatever they were directed to do with respect to that book.' The lawyer said at least 50 of the Epstein victims he has represented were under 18, with the youngest being 14. Responding to Edwards' claims, Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna told O'Donnell he will invite Edwards to meet with the House Oversight Committee and move for a subpoena to get the book from Epstein's estate. 'I think we can easily move forward on this subpoena of that birthday book, which could really advance this case,' Khanna said. 'Bombshell revelation by Bradley Edwards on Lawrence tonight,' Khanna later tweeted. 'The Epstein birthday book is in the hands of the Epstein estate. Lawyers will turn it over. I will work with @OversightDems to subpoena. This is about the victims and justice.' Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche announcing his plan to meet with Ghislaine Maxwell in jail has upset victims, Edwards said, claiming they are already suffering 'enormous anxiety' about the scandal becoming a political issue again. 'The one thing that has really alarmed our clients is the information that now Ghislaine Maxwell is being visited in jail and that she is somehow being given some credibility and a platform on this particular topic. Does she have information that could potentially help? Yes. Will she be truthful about it? Who knows?' He added, 'I have many clients who say, 'President Trump and Ghislaine Maxwell were good friends back then. Is he going to pardon her?' For him to do that, would be, he thought about you and he decided you do not matter. I don't think that is on the table, maybe I'm putting too much trust in him.'
