‘A Lot of Contradictions Here’: Elie Honig Explains What’s Wrong With Trump’s Epstein Story

CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig laid out the many contradictions in President Donald Trump’s story about his relationship with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on Thursday.

“So many questions have come up from these contradictory statements. Let me list a few,” said Honig on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360:

First of all, how did Donald Trump come to have a 16-year-old Virginia Giuffre working in his spa in the year 2000?

Second of all, when Jeffrey Epstein “stole her,” what did he think Jeffrey Epstein was stealing her to do? He was in finance. A 16-year-old to go work in high finance?

Third of all, if that’s the cause, that “stealing,” I’m using his word, of Virginia Giuffre in 2000 was the cause of their relationship ending, why two years later in 2002 does Donald Trump tell New York magazine that Jeffrey Epstein’s a wonderful guy who likes women on the younger side?

Next, what did you mean when you said he likes women on the younger side? What were you basing that on? Which women were you talking about? How young?

And finally, what was the real reason for the fallout? Either he was poaching your employees or he was acting like a creep, as Karoline Leavitt just said today. A lot of contradictions here and they get deeper by the day.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed on Thursday that Trump “kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his club for being a creep to his female employees.”

Earlier this week, however, Trump told reporters he fell out with Epstein after the sex offender “stole” several of his spa employees, including Virginia Giuffre, the Epstein victim who took her own life in April.

Trump and Epstein were previously reported to have fallen out after both men sought to purchase the same beachfront property.

The president snapped at ABC News White House correspondent Rachel Scott on Thursday after she asked him about Giuffre.

“You said that Jeffrey Epstein stole people from Mar-a-Lago,” Scott asked. “At the time, did you know why he was taking those young women, including Virginia Giuffre?”

“No I didn’t,” Trump replied. “I figured it would be ABC fake news that would ask that question. One of the worst.”

This week, the Giuffre’s family urged Trump not to pardon Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, who recently met with Trump’s Department of Justice amid talk of a potential pardon.

“It was shocking to hear President Trump invoke our sister and say that he was aware that Virginia had been ‘stolen’ from Mar-a-Lago,” said the family in a statement. “It makes us ask if he was aware of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s criminal actions.”

Watch above via CNN.