Trump: Ask Prince about Epstein island
President’s 2015 interview suggests Prince Andrew may know details about events at Epstein property
Donald Trump told reporters to “ask Prince Andrew” about what happened at Jeffrey Epstein’s “cesspool” private island when questioned by reporters, a newly unearthed interview reveals. In 2015, before he became US president, Mr Trump was asked about Epstein and the alleged sexual abuse that took place on Little St James, the disgraced financier’s Caribbean island. He said: “That island was really a cesspool, there’s no question about it, just ask Prince Andrew – he’ll tell you about it.”
DONALD TRUMP told reporters to “ask Prince Andrew” when questioned about what went on at Jeffrey Epstein’s “cesspool” private island, in a newly unearthed interview.
The US president was asked back in 2015 about Epstein and the alleged sexual abuse that took place on Little St James, the Caribbean island owned by the disgraced financier who died in a prison cell in August last year.
“That island was really a cesspool, there’s no question about it, just ask Prince Andrew – he’ll tell you about it,” Mr Trump told journalists shortly before he entered the presidential race. “The island was an absolute cesspool.”
According to flight logs, the Duke of York paid at least one visit to the island, travelling on Epstein’s private jet, although former staff claimed he visited Little St James several times.
However, Mr Trump claimed in a press briefing on Tuesday: “I don’t know the situation with Prince Andrew. Just don’t know, not aware of it,” he said as he wished Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s longtime associate and former girlfriend, well. The president was asked whether he thought Ms Maxwell, who was arrested earlier this month on sex-trafficking charges, was “going to turn in powerful men”.
“I don’t know, I haven’t really been following it too much. I just wish her well, frankly,” he replied, in an extraordinary intervention. Mr Trump and his wife Melania were photographed with Epstein and Ms Maxwell at the president’s Mar-a-lago hotel in Florida in 2000.
Virginia Roberts Giuffre has claimed she was recruited by Ms Maxwell, trafficked from the US to London, and forced to sleep with Prince Andrew when she was aged 17.
The Duke has always strongly denied the claims and said he has no recollection of meeting Ms Giuffre. Prosecutors in New York are appealing to him to talk to the FBI about his association with Epstein and Ms Maxwell.
There has been speculation that Ms Maxwell could give information to US authorities about the Duke and other powerful men who she had met, including Bill Clinton and Mr Trump, neither of whom have been accused of any wrongdoing.
Ms Maxwell applied on Tuesday to a judge for a gagging order to protect her “chances of a fair trial”. Ms Maxwell pleaded not guilty last week to charges that she recruited three girls, one as young as 14, in the mid-nineties for Epstein to sexually abuse during massage sessions which she allegedly participated in sometimes at his Manhattan mansion and in Palm Beach, Florida; New Mexico; and London.
Ms Maxwell is expected to spend a year awaiting trial at the notorious federal Brooklyn Detention Center.
The latest developments came a day before a judge in a civil suit, filed by Ms Giuffre against Ms Maxwell, was set to rule on whether to unseal documents relating to the socialite’s sex life. Ms Maxwell’s lawyers have tried to stop release of 613 pages of deposition testimony the heiress gave in the case in 2016.