Trump claims Epstein stole women from Mar-a-Lago spa including Virginia Giuffre
It is the latest evolution in his description of how their highly scrutinised relationship ended years ago.
One of the women, he acknowledged, was Virginia Giuffre, who was among Epstein's most well-known sex trafficking accusers. PA Media Jeffrey Epstein (New York State Sex Offender Registry via AP).
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 took his own life while awaiting trial, even though some of his own allies have promoted conspiracy theories about it.
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 on Tuesday that she is willing to answer more questions from the US congress if she is granted immunity from future prosecution for her testimony.
Aboard Air Force One while returning from Scotland, Mr 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, Mr Trump said he banned Epstein from Mar-a-Lago.
Asked if Ms Giuffre was one of the employees poached by Epstein, he demurred but then said 'he stole her'.
The White House originally said Mr Trump banned Epstein from Mar-a-Lago because he was acting like a 'creep'. PA Media Ghislaine Maxwell (Chris Ison/PA).
Ms 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 Ms 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.
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 cover-up.
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 investigation and deputy attorney general Todd Blanche interviewing Maxwell over the course of two days at a Florida courthouse last week.
In a letter on Tuesday, Maxwell's lawyers said that though their initial instinct was for Maxwell to invoke her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, they are open to having her co-operate provided that legislators 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 (lawyer) soon, but it will not consider granting congressional immunity for her testimony,' a spokesperson said.
Separately, Maxwell's lawyers have urged the Supreme Court to review her conviction, saying she dd 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 Mr 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.
Get all the latest news from around the country Follow STV News
Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Record
an hour ago
- Daily Record
Scots schools must continue to invest in libraries to protect children's futures
Glasgow City Council is considering removing librarians from 30 schools, but Record View demands that they think again. School libraries play a crucial role in expanding the minds of pupils. Not every child grows up in a house with books. For some youngsters, a school library is where they discover a lifelong appreciation of books. So it's deeply concerning that Glasgow City Council is considering removing the position of librarian from its 30 secondary schools. While there are no plans to close the libraries, the loss of such experienced professionals would be devastating. In these financially straitened times, all local authorities must make difficult decisions to balance their books. But it seems perverse that cutting cash from the school libraries budget would even be considered in the first place. Councils are being forced into these choices by a council tax freeze that has devastated local services. The freeze was brought in by the SNP to try to tackle soaring household bills. This was considered a vote winner by successive first ministers and enjoyed widespread support. Now the freeze has been lifted and bills have gone up again but the damage done to local services is still being felt. But before councils resort to measures like removing librarians from our high schools, they must think of the impact on young people. This generation of high school pupils has already lost years of schooling through the Covid lockdowns. They deserve to have their services protected – especially those which help them expand their horizons. Libraries can play as crucial a role for kids as classrooms. They deserve investment – not cutbacks. The city council must think again and keep its librarians. He's Don a U-turn Stock markets around the world slumped again as US President Donald Trump announced new tariffs on more than 90 countries. Trump is touting tariffs as the answer to trade deficits with other nations – but clearly the move will slow the global economy and devastate jobs. During his visit to Scotland last weekend, it appeared that Trump was on a more reasonable course. It may have been the sea air at Turnberry and Aberdeenshire that made him mellow, as he appeared to open a window of opportunity to get a deal done on whisky tariffs. But now he's back on the warpath and using the threat of tariffs to get his own way with countries that should be allies. It's typical of this erratic, unpredictable figure that he would say one thing one week, and something different the next. The world will be much safer and more prosperous place when his time in office finally ends.
The Guardian
3 hours ago
- The Guardian
Trump news at a glance: ‘credibility' of US economics data at risk, say experts, as president fires labor official
After Donald Trump ordered the firing of a federal government official in charge of labor statistics, experts and opposition politicians have expressed alarm that the 'credibility' of US economic data was at risk. The US president claimed without evidence that Erika McEntarfer, the commissioner of labor statistics, had 'rigged' job numbers 'in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad', after data showed jobs growth stalled this summer, prompting accusations that the president was 'firing the messenger'. Bill Beach, a former Heritage Foundation economist who was picked by Trump in 2018 to oversee labor statistics, denounced what he called the 'totally groundless firing'. 'Politicizing economic statistics is a self-defeating act,' said Michael Madowitz, the principal economist at the Roosevelt Institute's Roosevelt Forward, who added that 'credibility is far easier to lose than rebuild, and the credibility of America's economic data is the foundation on which we've built the strongest economy in the world'. Senate Democrat Ron Wyden said 'this is the act of somebody who is soft, weak and afraid to own up to the reality of the damage his chaos is inflicting on our economy'. The move came as markets around the world were roiled by Trump's latest tariff announcement, which left more than 60 countries scrambling to secure trade deals. Here are the key US politics stories of the day: Donald Trump ordered the firing of the federal government official in charge of labor statistics, hours after data revealed jobs growth stalled this summer, prompting accusations that he was 'firing the messenger'. The US president claimed that Erika McEntarfer, the commissioner of labor statistics, had 'faked' employment figures in the run-up to last year's election in an effort to boost Kamala Harris's chances of victory. Trump later claimed: 'Today's Jobs Numbers were RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad.' He produced no evidence for these allegations and insisted that the US economy was, in fact, 'BOOMING' on his watch. Read the full story Donald Trump has said that he deployed nuclear-capable submarines to the 'appropriate regions' in response to a threatening tweet by Russia's former president Dmitry Medvedev, suggesting that he would be ready to launch a nuclear strike as tensions rise over the war in Ukraine. In a post on Truth Social on Friday, Trump wrote that he had decided to reposition the nuclear submarines because of 'highly provocative statements' by Medvedev, noting he was now the deputy chair of Russia's security council. Medvedev had earlier said that Trump's threats to sanction Russia and a recent ultimatum were 'a threat and a step towards war'. Read the full story Donald Trump unleashed global chaos with sweeping new tariff rates, triggering a wave of market jitters and fears for jobs in some of the poorest countries, as rates were signed off ranging from 10% to 50%. There was a minor reprieve that opened the door to further negotiations, after the White House said the updated tariffs would take effect on 7 August, not on Friday, the deadline previously set by Trump. Read the full story Donald Trump called on top Federal Reserve officials to seize control from its chair, Jerome Powell, if he fails to cut interest rates, stepping up his extraordinary attacks on the central bank's independence. The US president called Powell 'a stubborn MORON' in a series of critical social media posts on Friday, days after the Fed held rates steady for the fifth consecutive time. Read the full story Americans are struggling financially, grappling with debt and the rising cost of living, and are blaming the Trump administration and corporate interests for worsening economic outlooks for working families, according to a new poll. Read the full story A new Trump administration report that attempts to justify a mass rollback of environmental regulations is chock-full of climate misinformation, experts say. Read the full story The US economy added 73,000 jobs in July, far lower than expected, amid ongoing concerns over Donald Trump's escalating trade war. Poverty and hunger will rise as a result of the Trump administration's unprecedented cuts to the US federal 'food stamps' program, according to experts. Low-income workers who rely on the aid are braced for dire consequences. California's governor, Gavin Newsom, may call a special election in November to begin the process of redrawing the state's congressional maps in response to Texas's plans to change its own maps to help Republicans keep their majority in the House of Representatives. Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein's associate who is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex-trafficking crimes, has been transferred from a federal prison in Florida to a lower-security facility in Texas, the US Bureau of Prisons said on Friday. Kamala Harris has said she currently has no desire to re-enter 'the system' of American politics because it is 'broken'. Sixteen states are suing the Trump administration to defend transgender youth healthcare access, which has rapidly eroded across the US due to threats from the federal government. Catching up? Here's what happened 31 July 2025.
Times
3 hours ago
- Times
Gestures are not enough — we need a coherent strategy for Ukraine
In the run-up to the presidential election in 2024, Donald Trump often expressed his confident belief that he could stop the war between Russia and Ukraine within 24 hours. In the months since, despite the US president's frequent oscillations between flattery of Vladimir Putin and exasperation, the latter has done everything possible to disabuse Mr Trump of his initial assumption. Indeed, in recent months Moscow has escalated its offensive with thousands of drones and missiles. In Scotland on July 28, Mr Trump warned Russia that it had a new deadline of 'ten or 12 days' to reach a peace deal with Ukraine or face tough new sanctions. Mr Putin was not slow to give his reply. Last Thursday morning, just three days later, Kyiv was surveying the grotesque aftermath of a seven-hour Russian aerial bombardment which killed at least 31 people and injured more than 150: the deadliest attack on the city in a year. Mr Trump's early tensions with President Zelensky, the flashpoint of which was a notoriously ill-humoured meeting in the Oval Office in February, have given way to his growing public frustration with Mr Putin. That anger has translated in modern-day gunboat diplomacy with Mr Trump deploying two nuclear submarines nearer to Russia. In April, after a Russian air attack killed 12 people in Kyiv, Mr Trump pleaded in a social media post 'Vladimir, STOP!'. In May, after a weekend of Russian drone and missile assaults upon Ukraine, he observed that Mr Putin had 'gone absolutely CRAZY'. • Peace deadline shows Trump has run out of patience with Putin Following the most recent outrage, the US president's rhetoric has hardened, to describe Russia's actions as 'disgusting' and warn that 'we're going to put sanctions' on Russia. For a man whose abiding creed is the 'art of the deal' this much must now be glaringly apparent to Mr Trump: the US has already made significant concessions with Russia on Ukraine, and received nothing in return. Not least among these were the indications by Pete Hegseth, the US defence secretary, that Ukraine could not expect to reclaim the land which Russia has seized since 2014, and nor would it be permitted to join Nato. Given Mr Putin's unwillingness to compromise, the time for heavy US sanctions against Russia is long overdue. Without decisive action, Mr Trump will increasingly resemble a spurned and insulted King Lear, threatening, 'I will do such things — what they are yet I know not, but they shall be the terrors of the earth!' Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, recently openly ridiculed Mr Trump's shifting deadlines and ultimatums. So did the excitable former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, who also verbally menaced the US leader with a Russian Cold-War era nuclear system known as the 'Dead Hand'. Beyond such symbolic gestures as moving the submarines, a much more cool-headed and coherent US approach to Russian aggression is needed. Mr Trump has spoken of sanctions and 'secondary tariffs', suggesting penalties on countries that trade strongly with Russia, such as India, China and Turkey. He has also announced an unspecified 'penalty' on India for its commerce with Moscow in energy and arms. Yet there remain many other potential moves, including pressuring other countries over Russia trade; ramping up the supply of weapons for Ukraine; reaching agreement with Kyiv for the joint production of advanced drones; and encouraging Europe to transfer £230 billion of frozen Russian state assets to Ukraine. A bipartisan bid in the US Congress to provide $54.6 billion in aid to Ukraine over the next two years also deserves widespread support. The US envoy Steve Witkoff is reportedly being dispatched, yet again, to Moscow. He has little thus far to show for his many chats with Mr Putin. If the US itself is not to be irrevocably weakened on the world stage, he must show that he, and his boss in the White House, finally mean business.
