US President Donald Trump claimed that Jeffrey Epstein poached staff — including young women — who worked for the spa at his Mar-a-Lago resort. Speaking aboard Air Force One, Trump said his falling out with Epstein wasn’t about allegations of abuse, but over the recruitment of Trump Organisation employees.

“People were taken out of the spa, hired by him,” Trump said. “In other words, gone. When I heard about it, I told him, I said, listen, we don’t want you taking our people, whether it’s spa or not spa And he was fine. And not too long after he did it again. And I said outta here.”

Asked whether those employees were young women, Trump hesitated: “I don’t want to say,” he said, before adding, “The answer is yes. They were in the spa.”

He then went a step further, naming Virginia Giuffre — one of Epstein’s most vocal accusers — as possibly being among those Epstein recruited from Mar-a-Lago.

“I think so. He stole her,” Trump said. “I think she worked at the spa. I think that was one of the people, yeah.”

MAXWELL ALLEGEDLY RECRUITED GIUFFRE AT MAR-A-LAGO

Giuffre died by suicide earlier this year. She claimed that Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s imprisoned former girlfriend, 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.

Giuffre had alleged that Epstein and his network exploited her while she was still a teenager. Though Trump has denied any involvement in Epstein’s abuse, the connection between Epstein and the Mar-a-Lago spa — which Giuffre has mentioned in past legal filings — has continued to draw scrutiny.

“I have a great spa, one of the best spas in the world at Mar-a-Lago,” Trump said, defending the resort while asserting that Giuffre “had no complaints about us whatsoever.”

The US president has distanced himself from Epstein over the years, insisting their relationship soured long before Epstein’s arrest and death.

Earlier on Monday, while speaking in Scotland alongside UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, President Trump said he cut ties with Jeffrey Epstein after Epstein repeatedly hired staff from his organisation without permission. “He stole people that worked for me I threw him out, persona non grata,” Trump said.

However, a White House statement issued last week offered a slightly different account. “The fact is that the President kicked him out of his club for being a creep,” said Steven Cheung, White House communications director.

Back in 2019, Trump acknowledged that Jeffrey Epstein used to be a familiar face around Palm Beach, but he said they had a falling out long ago and hadn’t spoken in about 15 years.

– Ends

With inputs from Agencies

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