Epstein Victim’s Family Calls Trump Comment on Virginia Giuffre ‘Shocking’

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Robert Birsel is a Newsweek reporter based in Asia with a focus on political and general news. Robert joined Newsweek in 2025 from Radio Free Asia and had previously worked at Reuters. He is a graduate of the London School of Economics. You can get in touch with Robert by emailing r.birsel@newsweek.com. Languages: English.

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The family of Virginia Giuffre said they were shocked to hear President Donald Trump say he was aware Giuffre had been “stolen” from his Florida resort, while urging the president not to pardon sex offender Jeffrey Epstein‘s co-conspirator and confidant Ghislaine Maxwell.

Giuffre was a sexual abuse advocate who died by suicide in April. Her family made their plea to Trump in a public statement on Wednesday after the president told reporters that Epstein “stole” Giuffre from his Mar-a-Lago Club, where she worked as a locker-room attendant at age 16 in the summer of 2000.

“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,” the family said in a statement.

Trump has said he is “allowed” to pardon Maxwell, who was convicted of child sex trafficking in 2021 and sentenced to 20 years in prison. She was a close associate of Epstein, the disgraced financier who died by suicide in a New York City jail while awaiting trial in 2019.

Maxwell met with U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who is also Trump’s former personal attorney, last week as part of the Department of Justice‘s renewed investigation into Epstein.

“We would like to clarify that 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,” Giuffre’s family said in a statement.

“The government and the President should never consider giving Ghislaine Maxwell any leniency,” the family added.

If you or someone you know is considering suicide, contact the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988, text “988” to the Crisis Text Line at 741741 or visit 988lifeline.org.