President Trump walks to board Marine One at Trump International Golf Links in Balmedie, Aberdeenshire, on Tuesday at the end of his trip to Scotland.
Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
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Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
President Trump offered new details Tuesday over what led to his falling out with Jeffrey Epstein some two decades ago, telling reporters aboard Air Force One that the rupture had to do with employees who worked at the spa at Mar-a-Lago.
Trump has repeatedly said he kicked Epstein out of his club for hiring workers away from Mar-a-Lago. When asked if the workers who were hired away were young women, Trump responded, “the answer is yes, they were.”
“People were taken out of the spa — hired by him — in other words, gone. And other people would come and complain, ‘This guy is taking people from the spa,'” Trump said. “I didn’t know that. And then when I heard about it, I told him, I said, ‘Listen, we don’t want you taking our people, whether it was spa or not spa, I don’t want them taking people.’ And he was fine. And then not too long after that, he did it again. And I said, ‘Out of here.’ ”
The remarks came at the end of trip to Scotland that was dominated at times by questions about Trump’s history with Epstein — questions that came even as the president announced a preliminary new trade deal with the European Union on Sunday. Despite being an ocean away, Trump could not escape the political drama back in Washington, D.C., over his administration’s handling of the files of the convicted sex offender.
On Monday, Trump was asked by reporters about the timing of the trade announcement and whether it was an attempt to change the subject.
“You gotta be kidding with that,” Trump said, adding, “that had nothing to do with it.”
Trump faced even more questions as he discussed the food crisis in Gaza while meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Trump explained that he cut off his friendship with Epstein for hiring workers away from his Florida club, calling what Epstein did “inappropriate.”
“He stole people that worked for me. I said, ‘don’t ever do that again.’ He did it again. And I threw him out of the place persona non-grata,” Trump said.
While much of the pressure for more information is coming from the president’s own MAGA base, Trump continues to insist the controversy is a hoax that’s been built up way beyond proportion by his political enemies. He has long maintained that his friendship with Epstein ended before the disgraced financier was indicted for soliciting prostitution in 2006. And White House officials have said Trump kicked Epstein out of Mar-a-Lago “for being a creep.”
Maxwell asks for immunity
Still, the White House has struggled to move past the Epstein story as many of the president’s own allies in Congress continue to press for answers – including from Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime Epstein confidant currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for helping Epstein sexually abuse underage girls.
Several House Republicans have called on the Trump administration to release Justice Department files from the Epstein investigation, and last week, the House Oversight Committee issued a subpoena to Maxwell for a deposition.
On Tuesday, attorneys for Maxwell asked the committee for immunity in exchange for her testimony. In a letter to the panel obtained by NPR, her legal team also said they want to postpone the appearance in the hopes the Supreme Court will take up her case first.
In the letter, Maxwell’s attorneys said they initially believed she would invoke her 5th Amendment rights or refuse to testify. However, they said testifying within certain parameters could change that.
“We would like to find a way to cooperate with Congress if a fair and safe path forward can be established,” attorneys David Oscar Markus, Leah Saffian and Melissa Madrigal wrote on Maxwell’s behalf in the 3-page letter.
In the subpoena, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., called for Maxwell’s testimony on August 11th, but her attorneys said that’s too soon. They argued that the Supreme Court could take up her case when they reconvene in October.
The committee said Maxwell’s ask for immunity goes too far.
“The Oversight Committee will respond to Ms. Maxwell’s attorney soon, but it will not consider granting congressional immunity for her testimony,” a committee spokesperson told NPR.
The panel had hoped to sit down with Maxwell at the Tallahassee Florida prison where she’s serving her prison sentence, and have not ruled out a delay in the high-profile sit-down.
