President Donald Trump Monday stated he by no means had the “privilege” of visiting Jeffrey Epstein’s personal island as he shed new particulars on his break up from the infamous pedophile who was as soon as his shut pal and Palm Seaside neighbor.
Dismissing questions on Epstein, Trump once more instructed the firestorm over Epstein was overblown and accused political enemies of concocting claims about his ties to Epstein and being nearer to the notorious intercourse trafficker than he ever was.
“I never went to the island and Bill Clinton went there supposedly 28 times,” Trump stated throughout a press convention in Scotland with United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer. “I never had the privilege of going to his island. I did turn it down. .. In one of my of my very good moments, I turned it down. I didn’t want to go.”
He additionally tweaked his story about how his once-cozy friendship with Epstein ended. He stated Epstein irked him by poaching staff from his Mar-a-Lago property, a unique story from his earlier declare that he lower ties as a result of Epstein was a “creep.”
“He hired (my) 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 stated.
Trump stated he then declared Epstein to be “persona non grata,” in his circle.
“I threw him out, and that was it. I’m glad I did, if you want to know the truth,” he stated. “I never had the privilege of going to his island.”
Trump additionally was pressured to fend off questions on Maxwell, who’s serving 20 years in jail for intercourse trafficking and is angling for a pardon.
He stated it might be “inappropriate” to debate a get-out-of-jail-free card for Maxwell, who recruited and groomed dozens of younger women to be abused by Epstein.
However he refused to rule out a pardon, noting as he has accomplished earlier than that he has the facility to grant clemency to her.
Trump’s No. 2 official on the Division of Justice spent two days final week quizzing Maxwell about what she might haven’t but revealed concerning the infamous case.
Congressional Democrats are demanding that the administration reveal what Maxwell stated and clarify what Trump hopes to get out of the extremely uncommon dialogue with the convicted intercourse offender.
Maxwell has requested the Supreme Courtroom to listen to her attraction of her 2022 conviction and is awaiting a ruling on whether or not it would take up the case.
With the political harm from the Epstein scandal displaying no indicators of abating, Trump additionally sought to deflect blame to his Democratic rivals.
He claimed that ex-President Biden or officers in his administration might need planted his identify in explosive prosecution recordsdata concerning the Epstein case, a far-fetched allegation for which he offered no proof.
Trump tried to maintain a lid on the discharge of the recordsdata after he reportedly was informed by Legal professional Basic Pam Bondi that he’s talked about in them.
“I was running against someone who ran the files,” Trump stated, mentioning ex-Legal professional Basic Merrick Garland and former FBI Director James Comey. “They can easily put something in the files that’s a phony.”
Initially Revealed: July 28, 2025 at 11:50 AM EDT
