US President Donald Trump has said that the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein "stole" young women who worked at his Mar-a-Lago resort.
One of the women was Virginia Giuffre, among Epstein's most well-known sex trafficking accusers, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Tuesday while returning from a trip to Scotland.
Trump's comments expanded on remarks he had made a day earlier, when he said he had banned Epstein from his private club in Florida two decades ago because his one-time friend "stole people that worked for me".
The president has become increasingly rattled by questions about the pair's relationship amid an outcry over his administration's refusal to release more records about the government's sex-trafficking investigation into Epstein after promises of transparency.
Conspiracy theories have been rife among parts of Trump's MAGA base, and he has tried to downplay or deflect attention and questions into the Epstein case.
Trump has expressed frustration that people are still talking about it six years after Epstein died by suicide in prison while awaiting trial, criticised some of his supporters, and repeatedly called the issue a "hoax".
His latest comments came as lawyers for Epstein's imprisoned former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell — who was convicted of helping him sexually abuse underage girls — said that she is willing to testify before Congress if she is granted immunity and other protections.
Falling out
While speaking to reporters on Air Force One, Trump said he was upset that Epstein was "taking people who worked for me". The women, he said, were "taken out of the spa, hired by (Epstein) — in other words, gone".
"I said, listen, we don’t want you taking our people," Trump said. When it happened again, the president said he banned Epstein from Mar-a-Lago.
Last week, the White House said the president had cut ties with his former friend because he regarded him as a "creep".
Asked by reporters if Giuffre was one of the employees poached by Epstein, Trump hesitated but then said, "he stole her".
Giuffre died by suicide earlier this year. She had alleged that Maxwell spotted her working as a spa attendant at Mar-a-Lago in 2000, when she was a teenager, and hired her as Epstein’s masseuse, which led to sexual abuse.
Although Giuffre's allegations did not become part of criminal prosecutions against Epstein, she is central to conspiracy theories about the case. She accused Epstein of pressuring her into having sex with powerful men.
Spotlight on Maxwell
Maxwell — who has denied Giuffre’s allegations — is serving a 20-year prison sentence in a Florida federal prison for conspiring with Epstein to sexually abuse underage girls.
Earlier this month, the Republican-led House Oversight and Government Reform Committee subpoenaed Maxwell to testify before lawmakers on 11 August.
A spokeswoman for the committee said on Tuesday that the panel would not consider granting the immunity she requested in exchange for her testimony.
The potential interview is part of a frenzied, renewed interest in the Epstein saga following the US Justice Department's statement earlier this month that it would not be releasing any additional records from the investigation.
In an apparent U-turn, US Attorney General Pam Bondi walked back the notion that Epstein had kept a "client list" of elites who took part in his trafficking of underage girls.
The abrupt announcement stunned online sleuths, conspiracy theorists and elements of Trump's political base who had been hoping to find proof of a government cover-up.
Since then, the Trump administration has sought to present itself as promoting transparency, with the department urging courts to unseal grand jury transcripts from the sex trafficking investigations. A judge in Florida last week rejected the request, although similar requests are pending in New York.
Separately, Maxwell's lawyers have urged the US Supreme Court to review her conviction, saying she did not receive a fair trial.
They also say that one way she would testify "openly and honestly, in public," is in the event of a pardon by Trump. The president has told reporters that such a move is within his rights, but that he has not been asked to do so.
"She welcomes the opportunity to share the truth and dispel the many misconceptions and misstatements that have plagued this case from the beginning," her lawyers said.
