Why did Trump ban Epstein from Mar-a-Lago? Former employees reveal details — Report

Jeffrey Epstein was barred from Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida in 2003 after an 18-year-old beautician complained that he had pressured her for sex during a visit to his home, former employees have said.

The employees told The Wall Street Journal that the young female alleged that he was sexually suggestive during appointments and sometimes exposed himself. The females reportedly also quietly warned each other about Epstein’s behaviour.

The staff also claimed that Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's girlfriend, used the spa to approach young workers for private jobs outside the club, which were not authorised.




After the beautician’s complaint in 2003, a manager sent Trump a fax describing the allegations and recommending that Epstein be banned, the employees said. Trump reportedly responded that it was appropriate to sever ties. The complaint was not passed on to Palm Beach police.

The staff also said that Epstein was never a fee-paying member of the club. Despite this, he regularly received home visits from Mar-a-Lago spa staff in the late 1990s and early 2000s for massages and manicures.

The staff was reportedly told to treat him "like a member", and that appointments were booked using an internal account, often by Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s then-girlfriend.

Employees back Trump’s account

The former employees' account broadly aligns with Donald Trump’s long-standing claim that he removed Jeffrey Epstein from Mar-a-Lago around 2004, describing him as a “creep”.

Trump has said on several occasions that he removed Epstein from Mar-a-Lago after accusing him of poaching staff from the club.

"People were taken out of the spa, hired by him, in other words, gone. And other people would come and complain, 'This guy is taking people from the spa,'" Trump said. "I didn't know that. And then when I heard about it, I told him, I said, 'Listen, we don't want you taking our people, whether it was spa or not spa, I don't want them taking people.' And he was fine. And then not too long after that, he did it again. And I said, 'Out of here,' " Trump said in July last year.

When asked whether those workers were young women, Trump replied, “the answer is yes, they were.”



Trump was also asked whether one of the employees hired away by Epstein was Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s accusers who later became a prominent advocate for survivors of sex trafficking. Giuffre died by suicide earlier last year.

"I don't know. I think she worked at the spa. I think so. I think that was one of the people. He stole her," Trump told reporters. "And by the way, she had no complaints about us, as you know, none whatsoever," he said.