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Trump says Epstein ‘stole' young women from Mar-a-Lago spa, including Virginia Giuffre
Trump says Epstein ‘stole' young women from Mar-a-Lago spa, including Virginia Giuffre

CTV News

timea day ago

  • Politics
  • CTV News

Trump says Epstein ‘stole' young women from Mar-a-Lago spa, including Virginia Giuffre

President Donald Trump waves as he boards Air Force One, Tuesday, July 29, 2025, at Royal Air Force Lossiemouth en route to return to Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that Jeffrey Epstein 'stole' young women who worked for the spa at Mar-a-Lago, the latest evolution in his description of how their highly scrutinized relationship ended years ago. One of the women, he acknowledged, was Virginia Giuffre, who was among Epstein's most well-known sex trafficking accusers. Trump's comments expanded on remarks he had made a day earlier, when he said he had banned Epstein from his private club in Florida two decades ago because his one-time friend 'stole people that worked for me.' At the time, he did not make clear who those workers were. The Republican president has faced an outcry 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. Trump has attempted to tamp down questions about the case, expressing annoyance that people are still talking about it six years after Epstein died by suicide while awaiting trial, even though some of his own allies have promoted conspiracy theories about it. CTV National News: Ghislaine Maxwell gets visit from U.S. deputy AG Jeffrey Epstein (left) and Ghislaine Maxwell. (file photo) Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's imprisoned former girlfriend, was recently interviewed inside a Florida courthouse by the Justice Department's No. 2 official, though officials have not publicly disclosed what she said. Her lawyers said Tuesday that she's willing to answer more questions from Congress if she is granted immunity from future prosecution for her testimony. Aboard Air Force One while returning from Scotland, Trump said he was upset that Epstein was 'taking people who worked for me.' The women, he said, were 'taken out of the spa, hired by him — in other words, gone.' 'I said, listen, we don't want you taking our people,' Trump said. When it happened again, Trump said he banned Epstein from Mar-a-Lago. Asked if Giuffre was one of the employees poached by Epstein, he demurred but then said 'he stole her.' The White House originally said Trump banned Epstein from Mar-a-Lago because he was acting like a 'creep.' Giuffre died by suicide earlier this year. She 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, which led to sexual abuse. Although Giuffre's allegations did not become part of criminal prosecutions against Epstein, she is central to conspiracy theories about the case. She accused Epstein of pressuring her into having sex with powerful men. 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. Trump, Epstein The potential interview is part of a frenzied, renewed interest in the Epstein saga following the Justice Department's July statement that it would not be releasing any additional records from the investigation, an abrupt announcement that stunned online sleuths, conspiracy theorists and elements of Trump's political base who had been hoping to find proof of a government coverup. Since then, the Trump administration has sought to present itself as promoting transparency, with the department urging courts to unseal grand jury transcripts from the sex-trafficking investigations. A judge in Florida last week rejected the request, though a similar request for the work of a different grand jury is pending in New York. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche interviewing Maxwell over the course of two days at a Florida courthouse last week. In a letter Tuesday, Maxwell's attorneys said that though their initial instinct was for Maxwell to invoke her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, they are open to having her cooperate provided that lawmakers satisfy their request for immunity and other conditions. But the Oversight Committee seemed to reject that offer outright. 'The Oversight Committee will respond to Ms. Maxwell's attorney soon, but it will not consider granting congressional immunity for her testimony,' a spokesperson said. Separately, Maxwell's attorneys have urged the Supreme Court to review her conviction, saying she did not receive a fair trial. They also say that one way she would testify 'openly and honestly, in public,' is in the event of a pardon by Trump, who has told reporters that such a move is within his rights but that he has not been not asked to make it. 'She welcomes the opportunity to share the truth and to dispel the many misconceptions and misstatements that have plagued this case from the beginning,' they said. Chris Megerian And Eric Tucker, The Associated Press

Noah Wachter
Noah Wachter

CTV News

time23-07-2025

  • Entertainment
  • CTV News

Noah Wachter

Field producer, CTV National News Noah joined the CTV News team as a producer for The Vassy Kapelos Show in November 2023. He is now a field producer for CTV's Ottawa Bureau with a focus on federal politics. He spent two years post graduation playing as a jazz guitarist with multiple organizations and still holds a passion for music. He produced an animated short, as well as various other online segments such as 'Pinty's Pub Chats' as part of coverage for 'The Grand Slam of Curling'. Previously a content producer with SportsNet in Toronto, Noah moved to Ottawa in 2021 to become a producer at CityNews Ottawa to cover the municipal election. He also produced two podcasts in collaboration with Vassy Kapelos – Digging Deeper: Canada's Toxic Drug Crisis and That Just Happened with Vassy Kapelos – Canada Decides 2025 Noah holds a B.A in Political Science from the University of Toronto and is a graduate of Algonquin Colleges Media/Film program. In his downtime, you can find him playing pickleball, rehearsing guitar, or rock climbing. He speaks English and German.

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