Trump says Epstein ‘stole’ his spa staff

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (AFP) — United States (US) President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he fell out with Jeffrey Epstein because the convicted sex offender had poached staff from his club’s spa, including the woman at the center of an underage sex scandal involving Prince Andrew.

The White House has said previously that Trump threw Epstein out of his Mar-a-Lago club two decades ago “for being a creep” and US media has reported that they became estranged over a Florida real estate deal.

Speaking to reporters on Air Force One while flying home from Scotland, Trump gave some of his most expansive public comments yet about his falling out with Epstein, the wealthy and well-connected financier who died in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking underage girls.

“People were taken out of the (Mar-a-Lago) spa, hired by him, in other words gone,” Trump said. “When I heard about it, I told him, I said, ‘Listen, we don’t want you taking our people.’”

“And then not too long after that, he did it again. And I said, ‘Out of here.’”

Trump also confirmed that one of the Mar-a-Lago spa attendants taken by his longtime friend Epstein was Virginia Giuffre, who brought a civil case against Epstein friend Prince Andrew, accusing him of sexually assaulting her when she was 17.

Giuffre, who accused Epstein of using her as a sex slave, committed suicide at her home in Australia in April.