Epstein Victim's Brother Breaks Down Over Trump Comments in TV Interview
Giuffre, who had become an advocate of justice for survivors of sex trafficking, died by suicide in April. The family said Donald Trump 'invoking' Giuffre's name this week had prompted them to speak on her behalf on Thursday.
On Tuesday, Donald Trump was asked if Giuffre was one of the employees poached from his Florida spa by Epstein to go to work with him and fellow convicted sex offender Maxwell.
The president said of Giuffre, 'I think she worked at the spa. I think that was one of the people. He stole her.'
On Thursday, Trump was asked whether he knew why Epstein had poached Giuffre from his Mar-a-Lago spa.
'I don't know, really, why,' Trump said. 'But I said if he's taking anybody from Mar-a-Lago or whatever he's doing, I didn't like it. We threw him out, we don't want him at the place. I didn't like it.'
Speaking to NBC News on Thursday, Sky Roberts, Giuffre's older brother, fought back tears as he addressed the president's language regarding his sister.
'We were shocked by it, especially to use the term 'stolen', because she's not an object, she's a person,' Roberts said. 'She's a mom, she's a sister. And she was recruited by Maxwell, she wasn't stolen, she was recruited.'
In a later interview with Kaitlan Collins on CNN's The Source, Roberts added, 'She wasn't stolen. She was preyed upon at his property, at President Trump's property... 'Stolen' seems very impersonal. It feels very much like an object and these survivors are not objects. Women are not objects.'
In a statement to the Daily Beast about Trump's comments earlier this week, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said, 'President Trump was directly responding to a question posed by a reporter about Ms. Giuffre—he did not bring her up.
Leavitt added, 'The fact remains that President Trump kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his club for being a creep to his female employees.'
Lanette Wilson, Giuffre's sister-in-law, also lashed out at the possibility of Maxwell being released from jail after two meetings with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche last week.
'It would be an abomination,' Wilson told NBC. 'Our sister always told us that Maxwell was even worse than Epstein. She was a monster. This is a woman who used her womanhood to prey on young girls, vulnerable young girls, and she wasn't she wasn't a light participant. She's convicted of these crimes.'
Giuffre's brother, Danny Wilson, added of Maxwell, 'I think that my sister would have been mortified if she were let out of prison.'
Speaking on CNN on Thursday, Sky Roberts said the family wanted Maxwell to serve her punishment.
'I want to make it clear that she (Maxwell) does not get the opportunity to get out. She deserves to rot in prison where she belongs because of what she's done to my sister and so many other women. It's absolutely a pure sense of evil.'
On CNN's OutFront, Virginia Giuffre's lawyer, Sigrid McCawley called Maxwell a 'master manipulator.'
McCawley added, 'Where they need to be looking is in Epstein's documents that the estate has in the files that the government has from the investigation. Documents don't lie. So those are the things that need to be uncovered and disclosed.'
Amanda Roberts, Giuffre's sister-in-law, said Virginia would be happy with the current push to release the 'Epstein files'
'On one of our very, very last conversations on FaceTime, she had a little bit of hope in her because it was said that the files were going to be released, and she wanted everything that happened to her very clearly, very clearly, and everyone who was implicated in that, she wanted that to be released,' she told NBC.
Roberts added, 'She was still fighting for that before she left us. So I think she wants what we all want, is transparency and justice. She was fighting for that to happen right up until the very end, she wanted the public to know the crimes they had committed.'
Sky Roberts told CNN the family wanted any files involving their sister to be unsealed.
'We want to know why aren't the documents being released? They deserve justice. These survivors had something taken away from them they can never get back.'
He added, 'It's time for these monsters to be exposed and get something they can never get back, which is their freedom.'
If you or a loved one are struggling with suicidal thoughts, please reach out to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741
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