It Took Trump Seven Years To Expel Epstein After Learning About ‘Stolen’ Staff

Portrait of financier Jeffrey Epstein (left) and real estate developer Donald Trump as they pose together at the Mar-a-Lago estate, Palm Beach, Florida, 1997. WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump has taken to boasting that he severed ties with Jeffrey Epstein after learning that the child sex trafficker had “stolen” staff from his country club — but has failed to mention that it took him seven years to do so.“He did something that was inappropriate. He hired help. And I said, ‘Don’t ever do that again.’ He stole people that worked for me. I said, ‘Don’t ever do that again,’” Trump told reporters in Scotland on July 28. “He did it again. And I threw him out of the place. Persona non grata.”“I said, ‘If he’s taking anybody from Mar-a-Lago, he’s hiring or whatever he’s doing, I didn’t like it.’ And we threw him out. We said we don’t want him, you know, at the place,” Trump said at the White House three days later.But while Trump implies that his response was rapid if not immediate, previous reporting lays out a timeline that says otherwise.A 2021 book by journalists then with the Miami Herald, who were shown logs of Mar-a-Lago membership rolls, found that Epstein remained a member there until October 2007 – a full year after Epstein was indicted on a state prostitution charge and just after he had agreed to plead guilty in return for a shorter prison sentence and avoiding more severe federal charges entirely.“Most closed accounts are labeled ‘Resigned’ and then the date that the membership ended. Epstein’s account says, ‘Account closed 10/07,’” co-author Nicholas Nehamas, now with the New York Times, told the Herald in 2021.An October 15, 2007, story in the New York Post, a tabloid Trump has over the years fed with tips about himself, confirmed that timing as well.Asked specifically about that seven-year gap during an exchange with reporters Friday as he left for another golf weekend, Trump would not answer.When the words “Mar-a-Lago” were mentioned, Trump’s eyes narrowed. When “Jeffrey Epstein” was mentioned, Trump said, “I don’t understand your question” – and turned to someone who was asking about his announced deployment of nuclear submarines closer to Russia.Just over a minute later, Trump refused to acknowledge a question asking why his Bureau of Prisons had transferred Epstein associate and fellow child sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell to a minimum-security camp following a meeting with top Department of Justice lawyer Todd Blanche.On Tuesday, at another photo opportunity, Trump claimed he did not know of or approve Maxwell’s transfer to the “Club Fed” prison in Texas. “It’s not a very uncommon thing,” he said, lying.In fact, sex offenders are not allowed to be sent to such facilities under BOP rules and require a special waiver for that to happen, according to NBC News.Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence following her 2021 conviction by a federal jury. Epstein was found hanged in his cell in 2019, a month after he was indicted on sex trafficking charges by a federal grand jury after the Miami Herald exposed irregularities in the 2007 plea deal.White House staff, like Trump himself, did not respond to HuffPost’s queries about why it took seven years to break with Epstein. They had previously responded to questions about Epstein by claiming that Trump expelled him because he was “a creep.”Two of Epstein’s victims, meanwhile, expressed outrage that the federal government under Trump is ignoring them while working to protect him and other Epstein friends and associates as it works to quell outrage over Trump’s reluctance to release Epstein’s investigative files.“To learn that our own president has utilised thousands of agents to protect his identity and these high-profile individuals is monumentally mind-blowing. That is their focus? Wow!” wrote one to US District Judge Richard Berman, who solicited their input as he decides whether to release some grand jury testimony in the case.“Sad to say, for the victims we never got our day in court. Apparently, Epstein killed himself under whose watch? Oh, was it Trump’s DOJ? Hmmm, interesting,” wrote the other. “The United States Government … did not and does not even care to know our truth. They would rather ask a convicted imprisoned sex trafficker/abuser for information.”Trump has already acknowledged that Virginia Giuffre was among the people “stolen” from Mar-a-Lago.“I don’t know. I think she worked at the spa. I think so. I think that was one of the people. He stole her,” he told reporters on the July 29 flight back from Scotland, a $10 million trip to promote one of his private businesses.Giuffre, who died by suicide earlier this year, was “groomed” by Maxwell, hired away from Mar-a-Lago to work as a “masseuse” for Epstein in the summer of 2000.Two years later, Trump was still lavishing Epstein with praise for his taste in women. “He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side,” he told New York Magazine in 2002.Some accounts describe a falling out between Trump and Epstein over a bidding war on an oceanfront mansion in 2004. Epstein had wanted it first, but Trump ended up buying it, reportedly angering Epstein.In any event, another three years passed before Epstein was booted from Mar-a-Lago. Even then, Epstein claimed that he was not forbidden from the premises, according to the New York Post’s account in 2007.Related...Trump Cloaks Incredibly Racist Claim About Migrant Farm Workers As PraiseTrump Has A New Tactic To Stop The Ukraine War – Going After Russia's AlliesRFK Jr Says Donald Trump Keeps Hounding Him On The Phone With Same Question

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