‘Very Disturbing’: Trump’s Latest Epstein Comments Reveal What He Knew And When, Legal Analyst Argues
President Donald Trump ignited a firestorm of controversy on Tuesday when he told reporters aboard Air Force One that he was aware Jeffrey Epstein “stole” young women working at his Mar-a-Lago club.
“Mr. President, Epstein has a certain reputation, obviously. I’m just curious, were some of the workers that were taken from you, were some of them young women?” a reporter asked Trump on his way back from Scotland. He replied, “Some of them?”
“Were some of them young women?” pressed the reporter.
“Well, I don’t want to say, but everyone knows the people that were taken, and it was the concept of taking people that work for me is bad, but that story’s been pretty well out there, and the answer is yes, they were,” Trump replied. After a longer answer, he was then asked, “Mr. President, did one of those stolen, you know, persons include Virginia Giuffre?”
Trump replied, “I don’t know. 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, as you know, none whatsoever.” Giuffre, who sought civil and criminal action against Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, and accused Prince Andrew of sexual abuse, killed herself in April of this year.
Trump’s comments quickly lit up social media as pundits and observers weighed in, with many expressing shock.
Ryan Goodman, a NYU law professor and legal analyst, shared the clip online and noted, “Here’s the very disturbing part of this.” He added:
The timing and Trump’s knowledge:
Year 2000: Epstein-Maxwell ‘took’ Virginia Giuffre from Mar-a-Lago
2002: Trump said most infamous line about Epstein being a “terrific” friend and liking “younger” ones
2004: Trump rupture with Epstein
Goodman wasn’t the only one to note the timeline surrounding Trump and Epstein’s falling out. S.V. Dáte, the White House correspondent at HuffPost, added, “Trump on AF1 confirms that one of the people Epstein “stole” from him at Mar-a-Lago was Virginia Giuffre. That was in 2000. He told NY mag in 2002 that he admired Epstein’s taste in women. The break from Epstein wasn’t for another 2 years.”
Below are some additional reactions to Trump’s Tuesday comments:
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