President Donald Trump said that he turned down an invitation to Jeffrey Epstein's notorious island, characterizing the decision as "one of my very good moments."
Trump was quizzed again Monday about the Epstein files while holding a press conference with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer at Trump Turnberry golf resort in Scotland.
"I never had the privilege of going to his island, and I did turn it down, but a lot of people in Palm Beach were invited to his island," Trump said. "In one of my very good moments, I turned it down. I didn't want to go to his island."
Epstein's island has been described as "the perfect hideaway and haven for trafficking young women and underage girls for sexual servitude, child abuse and sexual assault."
Trump has previously said that he never went to Epstein's Little St James, the 75-acre private paradise in the U.S. Virgin Islands, featured in Ghislaine Maxwell's sex trafficking trial.
The president continues to be dogged by the administration's handling of the Epstein files as questions about Trump's ties to the sex offender persist. Earlier this month the Department of Justice announced no further information would be released in the investigation. That is after months of officials saying they were reviewing files before their release. That led to anger among Trump's MAGA base. The president has tried to turn attention to other topics, but it has not worked.
At Monday's press conference, Trump tried to change the conversation to his trade deal with the European Union when a reporter asked about Epstein again.
“For years, I wouldn't talk to Jeffrey Epstein. I wouldn't talk because he did something that was inappropriate,” Trump said.
In a lengthy answer, Trump then claimed Epstein “stole people” who worked for him.
“He hired help, and I said, ‘Don't ever do that again.’ He stole people that work for me. I said, ‘Don't ever do that again.’ He did it again,” Trump said. “And I threw him out of the place persona non grata. I threw him out, and that was it. I'm glad I did, if you want to know the truth. And by the way, I never went to the island.”
Trump banned Epstein from his Mar-a-Lago Club when revelations about the sex offender became public.
Epstein bought Little St James in 1998. Celebrities, royalty, politicians and other notable figures have stayed on it, which locals dubbed “Pedophile Island.”
“Epstein and his associates could avoid detection of their illegal activity from Virgin Islands and federal law enforcement, and prevent these young women and underage girls from leaving freely and escaping the abuse,” said a criminal complaint from the attorney general of the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Virginia Giuffre was working as a locker room attendant at Mar-a-Lago in 2000 when she first met Maxwell, Epstein’s accomplice.
Maxwell offered her the chance to train as a massage therapist, according to Guiffre’s 2015 defamation lawsuit against the sex trafficker, and took her to meet Epstein. It was the beginning of years of abuse, Giuffre claimed.
According to Giuffre, Little St James was the center of a worldwide grooming scheme in which recruiters working for Epstein targeted young women who were open to abuse and manipulation, played on their hopes and fears, dazzled them with “displays of vast wealth and power” and then forced them to have sex with clients while keeping them in line with threats and blackmail.
Her lawsuit described the island as just one step in a worldwide web of private flights that ferried sex trafficking victims to London, Paris, Tangier, St Louis, Palm Beach, Atlantic City and beyond.
Giuffre accused Prince Andrew of sexually abusing her on Little St James when she was 17, which the prince “unequivocally” denied. In 2022, he agreed to settle the suit out of court for an undisclosed sum, without admitting liability.
Giuffre died by suicide on April 26 this year at her home in Australia. She was 41.
Last week Maxwell was interviewed by Department of Justice officials about the case. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche went to interview her after anger over Trump’s handling of the files release. During the discussion, she talked about 100 different people, her lawyer said. Simply being mentioned by Maxwell or Epstein is not evidence of wrongdoing.
Trump is feeling the heat from his own MAGA base and Democrats, as both sides refuse to drop the controversial case and he continues to try to distance himself from the sex offender.
The president is frustrated that the Epstein case has overshadowed much of his agenda this past month, but he doesn’t want to “create a bigger spectacle by firing anyone,” according to a report. Trump is said to be “exasperated” by the scandal and is growing “increasingly frustrated” with how his administration is handling the fallout.
“This is a pretty substantial distraction,” one person close to the situation told The Washington Post. “While many are trying to keep the unity, in many ways, the DOJ and the FBI are breaking at the seams. Many are wondering how sustainable this is going to be for all the parties involved — be it the FBI director or attorney general.”
More fuel was added to the fire when the Wall Street Journal reported the alleged existence of a “bawdy” 50th birthday card from Trump to Epstein. The president has denied the validity of the letter and has filed a $10 billion defamation lawsuit against right-wing media mogul Rupert Murdoch, the Journal’s parent company Dow Jones and the two journalists whose bylines appear on the story.
The Journal later reported that Trump was told that his name appears in the Epstein files.
Additional reporting from Io Dodds
