Keep Maxwell in prison, Giuffre's family urges Trump
Giuffre's family also said it was "shocking" to hear Trump say earlier this week that Epstein had poached Giuffre from Trump's Mar-a-Lago club, where she worked at the spa in 2000. The family said Trump's comment raised questions about whether Trump was aware of Epstein's sexual abuse at the time.
Trump has not been accused of wrongdoing. Giuffre has said she was a victim of Epstein's sex trafficking from 2000 to 2002, starting when she was 16. She took her own life in Australia in April aged 41.
The family's statement comes as Trump has faced pressure to make public documents from the federal investigations into Epstein, who took his own life in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, and his longtime girlfriend Maxwell, who was convicted of sex trafficking in 2021.
Deputy US Attorney-General Todd Blanche, Trump's former personal lawyer, last week met with Maxwell to see if she had any information about others who had committed crimes. Maxwell's lawyer David Markus has called on Trump to grant her relief, but Trump has said he has not thought about whether to pardon her.
"The government and the president should never consider giving Ghislaine Maxwell any leniency," Giuffre's family said in the statement.
"Maxwell destroyed many young lives."
A senior Trump administration official said no leniency for Maxwell was being given or discussed. "That's just false," the official said.
Markus did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump and Epstein socialised in the 1990s and 2000s, before what Trump has called a falling out.
Speaking to reporters on Air Force One on Tuesday, Trump said he told Epstein to "stay the hell out" of Mar-a-Lago after finding out Epstein was poaching Trump's workers, including Giuffre.
"He stole her," Trump said. In their statement, Giuffre's family said Maxwell recruited her from Mar-a-Lago in 2000. The family said that was years before Epstein and Trump had their falling out, pointing to a 2002 New York magazine article in which Trump was quoted calling Epstein a "terrific guy" who liked women "on the younger side".
"It makes us ask if he was aware of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell's criminal actions," Giuffre's family said, referring to Trump's Air Force One comments.
Asked by a reporter on Thursday if he knew why Epstein was taking his employees, Trump said he did not.
"I didn't really know really why, but I said if he's taking anybody from Mar-a-Lago, if he's hiring or whatever he's doing, I didn't like it and we threw him out," Trump said.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement earlier on Thursday that Trump had been responding to a reporter's question about Giuffre and did not bring her up.
"President Trump kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his club for being a creep to his female employees," Leavitt said.
At Maxwell's trial in 2021, Juan Alessi, the former manager of Epstein's Palm Beach home, testified that he drove with Maxwell to meet Giuffre at nearby Mar-a-Lago. He said he then saw Giuffre at Epstein's home for the first time that evening, and saw her at the home many times thereafter.
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The Advertiser
21 minutes ago
- The Advertiser
Smithsonian removes Trump impeachment references
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The Democratic majority in the House voted each time for impeachment. The Republican-led Senate each time acquitted Trump. The White House says it didn't pressure the Smithsonian to remove references to President Donald Trump's two impeachments from an exhibit and will include him in an updated presentation "in the coming weeks". The revelation that Trump was no longer listed among impeached presidents sparked concern that history was being whitewashed to appease the president. "We were not asked by any Administration or other government official to remove content from the exhibit," the Smithsonian statement said on Saturday. A museum spokesperson, Phillip Zimmerman, had previously pledged that "a future and updated exhibit will include all impeachments" but it was not clear when the new exhibit would be installed. The museum did not say when in the coming weeks the new exhibit will be ready. A label referring to Trump's impeachments had been added in 2021 to the National Museum for American History's exhibit on the American presidency, in a section called "Limits of Presidential Power". The section includes materials on the impeachment of Presidents Bill Clinton and Andrew Johnson and the Watergate scandal that helped lead to President Richard Nixon's resignation. "The placard, which was meant to be a temporary addition to a twenty-five year-old exhibition, did not meet the museum's standards in appearance, location, timeline, and overall presentation," the statement said. "It was not consistent with other sections in the exhibit and moreover blocked the view of the objects inside its case. For these reasons, we removed the placard." Trump is the only president to have been impeached twice - in 2019, for pushing Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate Joe Biden, who would later defeat Trump in the 2020 presidential election; and in 2021 for "incitement of insurrection", a reference to the January 6 siege of the US Capitol by Trump supporters attempting to halt congressional certification of Biden's victory. The Democratic majority in the House voted each time for impeachment. The Republican-led Senate each time acquitted Trump. The White House says it didn't pressure the Smithsonian to remove references to President Donald Trump's two impeachments from an exhibit and will include him in an updated presentation "in the coming weeks". The revelation that Trump was no longer listed among impeached presidents sparked concern that history was being whitewashed to appease the president. "We were not asked by any Administration or other government official to remove content from the exhibit," the Smithsonian statement said on Saturday. A museum spokesperson, Phillip Zimmerman, had previously pledged that "a future and updated exhibit will include all impeachments" but it was not clear when the new exhibit would be installed. The museum did not say when in the coming weeks the new exhibit will be ready. A label referring to Trump's impeachments had been added in 2021 to the National Museum for American History's exhibit on the American presidency, in a section called "Limits of Presidential Power". The section includes materials on the impeachment of Presidents Bill Clinton and Andrew Johnson and the Watergate scandal that helped lead to President Richard Nixon's resignation. 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The White House says it didn't pressure the Smithsonian to remove references to President Donald Trump's two impeachments from an exhibit and will include him in an updated presentation "in the coming weeks". The revelation that Trump was no longer listed among impeached presidents sparked concern that history was being whitewashed to appease the president. "We were not asked by any Administration or other government official to remove content from the exhibit," the Smithsonian statement said on Saturday. A museum spokesperson, Phillip Zimmerman, had previously pledged that "a future and updated exhibit will include all impeachments" but it was not clear when the new exhibit would be installed. The museum did not say when in the coming weeks the new exhibit will be ready. A label referring to Trump's impeachments had been added in 2021 to the National Museum for American History's exhibit on the American presidency, in a section called "Limits of Presidential Power". 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The Democratic majority in the House voted each time for impeachment. The Republican-led Senate each time acquitted Trump.
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3 hours ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
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The Age
3 hours ago
- The Age
Australia should recognise Palestine. To not do so only rewards Israel's crimes
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