July 30, 2025
Trump stayed friends with Epstein years after discovering he groomed employees
By Camaron Stevenson
Court records detailing sex trafficking victim Virginia Giuffre’s employment at Mar-a-Lago disprove President Donald Trump’s recent claim that he cut ties with Jeffrey Epstein when he discovered Epstein targeting resort employees for sexual grooming.
While speaking to reporters Tuesday, Trump admitted that he had been aware of Epstein’s predatory tactics since 2000, when his accomplice, convicted sex trafficker Ghislane Maxwell, offered 16-year-old Mar-a-Lago spa employee Virginia Giuffre a job as Epstein’s private masseuse.
“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,” Trump said. “He took people that work for me, and I told him, ‘don’t do it anymore.’ And he did it. I said, ‘stay the hell out of here.'”
Before her death in April 2025, Giuffrie went into excruciating detail about her time with Epstein, claiming she was forced to engage sexually with a number of Epstein’s business partners over the course of two years. She sued Maxwell and Prince Andrew separately for their alleged involvement, and both settled for an undisclosed amount of money and admitted no wrongdoing.
Court documents from the lawsuits were unsealed in 2019 — the day before Epstein’s death — and verify Giuffrie as an employee of Trump’s in 2000. But statements from the president himself make it clear that Epstein’s predatory practices —or “being a creep” as White House officials described him — weren’t a dealbreaker; the same year Giuffre escaped Epstein, Trump described him as a “great guy” who was “a lot of fun to be with.”
It wasn’t until Trump and Epstein got into a bidding war over a Palm Beach mansion in 2005 that their relationship deteriorated. Trump won with a $41 million bid, banned Epstein from Mar-a-Lago, and later sold the estate to a Russian oligarch for $95 million.
This post first appeared in Below The Beltway, a COURIER Substack by Camaron Stevenson.