With the possibility looming of President Donald Trump pardoning convicted child predator and Jeffrey Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, testimony from her trial is standing out that sheds new light on the nature of Trump's friendship with Epstein.
In a Thursday article for the Daily Beast, special correspondent Michael Daly delved into testimony from Epstein victim "Jane," who was groomed by Maxwell and Epstein as a young teenager. Jane took the stand against Maxwell in her 2021 trial, and described how she was approached and eventually taken in by Epstein and his longtime girlfriend and partner in crime while she was at summer camp.
Jane, who had recently lost her father, was between seventh and eighth grade at a summer arts camp in Interlochen, Michigan in 1994 when she saw Maxwell walking a small dog. When Jane and her friends asked if they could pet the dog, "a man came and joined" Maxwell, who she later learned was Jeffrey Epstein. After a brief conversation in which Epstein mentioned owning the land where the camp was built and funding scholarships for kids, he invited the girl and her mother to his home in West Palm Beach, Florida, telling her that he knew her mother.
Jane went on to say in her testimony that Epstein would frequently "name-drop" multiple celebrity connections, including "Donald Trump, Bill Clinton [and] Mike Wallace," and continued inviting her to his home — but not her mother. She added that Epstein and Maxwell would "sometimes put people on speakerphones whose voices I didn’t know and then say, Oh, well, this was so-and-so and so-and-so; and just, you know, say that they were very well-connected and affluent.”
According to Jane, Epstein introduced her to Trump in December of 1994 at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate. In a 2020 civil suit, Jane alleged that during the encounter, "Epstein elbowed Trump playfully asking him, referring to [Jane], ‘This is a good one, right?’ Trump smiled and nodded in agreement. They both chuckled and [Jane} felt uncomfortable, but, at the time, was too young to understand why."
The questions surrounding Trump and Epstein's relationship have prompted the president to shift his stories the more journalists press him on the issue. While Trump has maintained he kicked Epstein out of his club for "being a creep," he said earlier this week that he revoked his Mar-a-Lago membership after Epstein "stole" staff from him, including then-17 year-old Mar-a-Lago spa attendant Virginia Giuffre (an Epstein victim who died by suicide earlier this year at the age of 41).
Trump has so far not ruled out a pardon for Maxwell, who met with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche for two days at the federal prison in Florida where she is currently serving a 20-year sentence. Maxwell reportedly gave up information on roughly "100 people" during her interviews with Blanche.
Reprinted with permission from Alternet
According to Jane, Epstein introduced her to Trump in December of 1994 at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate. In a 2020 civil suit, Jane alleged that during the encounter, "Epstein elbowed Trump playfully asking him, referring to [Jane], ‘This is a good one, right?’ Trump smiled and nodded in agreement. They both chuckled and [Jane} felt uncomfortable, but, at the time, was too young to understand why."
The questions surrounding Trump and Epstein's relationship have prompted the president to shift his stories the more journalists press him on the issue. While Trump has maintained he kicked Epstein out of his club for "being a creep," he said earlier this week that he revoked his Mar-a-Lago membership after Epstein "stole" staff from him, including then-17 year-old Mar-a-Lago spa attendant Virginia Giuffre (an Epstein victim who died by suicide earlier this year at the age of 41).
Trump has so far not ruled out a pardon for Maxwell, who met with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche for two days at the federal prison in Florida where she is currently serving a 20-year sentence. Maxwell reportedly gave up information on roughly "100 people" during her interviews with Blanche.
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Click here to read Daly's full article in the Daily Beast (subscription required).
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