Family of Epstein abuse survivor urges Trump not to pardon Ghislaine Maxwell: 'A monster who deserves to rot in prison'
Virginia Giuffre's family said any leniency extended to Maxwell would go down as "one of the highest travesties of justice" in history.
Virginia Giuffre's family said any leniency extended to Maxwell would go down as "one of the highest travesties of justice" in history.
www.nbcnews.com
The family of a key survivor of Jeffrey Epstein's sexual abuse urged
President Donald Trump on Wednesday not to consider clemency for the late financier's co-conspirator and confidant, Ghislaine Maxwell.
The family of Virginia Roberts Giuffre, a sexual abuse advocate who died by suicide in April, made their plea to Trump in a public statement after he told reporters that Epstein, a convicted sex offender,
"stole" Giuffre from his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, where she worked as a locker-room attendant at age 16 during the summer of 2000.
Giuffre's family called Trump's admission "shocking" and questioned whether he was aware of Epstein's and Maxwell's actions.
“It was shocking to hear President Trump invoke our sister and say that he was aware that Virginia had been 'stolen' from Mar-a-Lago. It makes us ask if he was aware of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s criminal actions, especially given his statement two years later that his good friend Jeffrey 'likes women on the younger side . . . no doubt about it.' We and the public are asking for answers; survivors deserve this,” the family added.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday night that Trump was referring to Giuffre in response to a question from a reporter about her.
“He did not bring her up. The fact remains that President Trump kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his club for being a creep to his female employees,” she said in a statement.
In the statement, the family also said it was “convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell who targeted and preyed upon our then 16-year-old sister, Virginia, from Mar-a-Lago, where she was working in 2000, several years before Epstein and President Trump had their falling out.”
The Justice Department declined to comment when it was asked about the statement.
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