Epstein hired away Mar-a-Lago employees, Trump says

Convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein hired away several employees from President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, Trump said on Tuesday. The employees were all young women who worked in the resort’s spa in Palm Beach, Fla., according to audio of the president’s comments to reporters aboard Air Force One. The president at first used the words “took” and “stole,” but then clarified that the individuals were hired away.

Trump said that he didn’t like losing employees to Epstein, saying that he asked him not to offer employment to the resort workers. But Epstein hired another soon after Trump confronted him, the president said. Trump added that he believed one of the workers was Virginia Guiffre, who later accused Epstein of sexual abuse and of trafficking her to powerful men. Guiffre died by suicide in April, several years after Epstein’s 2019 death ended her legal action against him.

What’s the status of investigations into Epstein’s alleged sex trafficking operation? The president and his administration have faced intense scrutiny in recent weeks over their handling of files related to Epstein, after the Department of Justice said it wouldn’t release further information on the case. Following the backlash, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche interviewed Epstein’s associate Ghislaine Maxwell for two days. He said his department would share information about what it learned from her at the appropriate time. The House Oversight Committee also subpoenaed Maxwell ahead of an August deposition.

Attorney General Pam Bondi is also awaiting a response to her request to unseal grand jury proceedings from Epstein and Maxwell’s federal trials. Trump asked Bondi to do so, to end what he characterized as a ridiculous amount of publicity given to the Epstein case.

Dig deeper: Read Leo Briceno’s report on Congressional Republicans’ differing approaches to the Epstein case.