The household of a key survivor of Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse is urging President Donald Trump to not contemplate clemency for the late financier’s co-conspirator and confidant Ghislaine Maxwell.
The household of Virginia Roberts Giuffre, a sexual abuse advocate who died by suicide in April, made their plea to Trump in a public assertion Wednesday after he instructed reporters that Epstein, a convicted intercourse offender, “stole” Giuffre from his Mar-A-Lago membership, the place she labored as a locker-room attendant on the age of 16 in the course of the summer time of 2000.
Giuffre’s household known as that admission by Trump “stunning,” whereas questioning whether or not Trump was conscious of Epstein’s and Maxwell’s actions.
“It was stunning to listen to President Trump invoke our sister and say that he was conscious that Virginia had been ‘stolen’ from Mar-a-Lago. It makes us ask if he was conscious of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s legal actions, particularly given his assertion two years later that his good buddy Jeffrey ‘likes ladies on the youthful facet . . . little question about it.’ We and the general public are asking for solutions; survivors deserve this,” the household added.
White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt responded Wednesday night time saying Trump referenced Giuffre in response to a query from a reporter about her.
“He didn’t convey her up. The actual fact stays that President Trump kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his membership for being a creep to his feminine workers,” Leavitt stated in a press release.
Comply with stay politics protection right here
Of their assertion, the household additionally stated that it was Maxwell who “focused and preyed” on Giuffre whereas she was working at Mar-a-Lago.
“We want to make clear that it was convicted intercourse trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell who focused and preyed upon our then 16-year-old sister, Virginia, from Mar-a-Lago, the place she was working in 2000, a number of years earlier than Epstein and President Trump had their falling out,” they stated.
The Justice Division declined to remark when requested concerning the Giuffre household assertion.
Maxwell, who’s serving a 20-year jail sentence for her position recruiting and trafficking minors for intercourse, met with Deputy Legal professional Common Todd Blanche final week because the Trump administration seeks extra data pertaining to Epstein’s case. Whereas her legal professional, David Oscar Markus, stated on Friday there have been “no asks and no guarantees” concerning clemency, he instructed reporters Maxwell “would welcome any reduction.”
When requested final week about pardoning Maxwell, Trump stated he hadn’t considered it, however famous that he is “allowed to do it.” The household of Giuffre, one of many earliest and most distinguished voices to name for costs in opposition to Epstein and Maxwell, stated any leniency prolonged towards Maxwell would “go down in historical past as being one of many highest travesties of justice.”
“The federal government and the President ought to by no means contemplate giving Ghislaine Maxwell any leniency,” the household stated.
“Ghislaine Maxwell is a monster who deserves to rot in jail for the remainder of her life for the extraordinary violence and abuse she put not simply our sister Virginia by way of, however many different survivors, who could quantity within the hundreds.”
A senior administration official instructed NBC Information after the Giuffre household’s assertion that “no leniency is being given or mentioned.”
“The President himself has stated that clemency for Maxwell isn’t one thing he’s even interested by at the moment,” the official stated.
This can be a creating story. Please examine again for updates.
