A new report from The Wall Street Journal alleges that Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago spa sent teenage workers to Jeffrey Epstein’s nearby mansion to provide services such as massages and manicures.
The report, which cites unnamed former employees of both Mar-a-Lago and Epstein, claims that spa staff were routinely dispatched to Epstein’s residence despite him not being a formal member of the club. According to those former employees, Trump instructed staff to treat Epstein as if he were a paying member.
Former workers also told the Journal that employees warned one another about Epstein, who was allegedly known among staff for behaving inappropriately during appointments, including making s***** suggestive comments and exposing himself.
In response, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed the report in a statement to the Journal, accusing the publication of attempting to smear the president.
“No matter how many times this story is told and retold, the truth remains: President Trump did nothing wrong and he kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of Mar-a-Lago for being a creep,” Leavitt said in a text message.
That claim appears to align in part with the Journal’s reporting. The article states that in 2003, an 18-year-old spa worker returned from an Epstein house call and alleged that Epstein had pressured her for ***.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(749x0:751x2):format(webp)/donald-trump-jeffrey-epstein-4-071725-e21613d937dd4df7ab4a2c8d8f7fed70.jpg)
According to former employees cited in the report, a manager sent Trump a fax detailing the worker’s allegations and urged him to ban Epstein from the club. Trump reportedly reviewed the message, said it was “a good letter,” and instructed the manager to remove Epstein from Mar-a-Lago.
The incident was not reported to police at the time, the Journal reported. Two years later, Epstein became the subject of a criminal investigation after a parent accused him of s***** abusing her 14-year-old daughter. He later pleaded guilty to solicitation of prostitution and solicitation of prostitution with a minor under the age of 18.
That conviction preceded the more serious federal ***-trafficking charges filed in 2019. Epstein was awaiting trial on those charges when he died in federal custody. His relationships with powerful figures in business and politics have come under renewed scrutiny as the Justice Department—acting under an order to release all Epstein-related evidence by Dec. 19—has continued to publish documents and photographs in stages.
Although Trump has sought to minimize the extent of his past association with Epstein since beginning his second term, a document included in a recent release drew attention to the president.
One record, dated Oct. 27, 2020, appears to be an FBI intake report summarizing the account of a former limousine driver. The driver claimed he met Trump in 1995 while transporting him to Dallas Fort Worth International Airport and described a phone conversation Trump allegedly had during the ride as deeply troubling.
According to the document, the driver said he was “a few seconds from pulling the limousine over” because of what he heard Trump saying.
Years later, while recounting the story to an unnamed woman, the driver alleged that her reaction was immediate and chilling.
The FBI intake report states that the woman told the driver, “He raped me,” and then added that “Donald J. Trump had raped her along with Jeffrey Epstein.”
The Department of Justice addressed such claims directly when releasing the latest batch of Epstein-related documents. In a statement issued Tuesday, Dec. 23, the department said it had released nearly 30,000 additional pages connected to the Epstein investigation, while cautioning that some contained false or sensational allegations against Trump submitted shortly before the 2020 election.
“The claims are unfounded and false,” the statement said, adding that if they had any credibility, they would have already been used against Trump. The DOJ said it nevertheless released the materials in the interest of transparency, while applying legally required protections for Epstein’s victims.
