Virginia Giuffre’s Family Was Shocked That Trump Described Her as ‘Stolen’
The siblings of one of Jeffrey Epstein’s most prominent accusers wonder what the president knows.
Updated at 9:55 p.m. ET on July 30, 2025
When Donald Trump told reporters yesterday that Jeffrey Epstein “stole” a young woman named Virginia Roberts Giuffre from Mar-a-Lago, her surviving siblings were shocked—not just because the president had described their late sister as he would an object, but because his comment raised the possibility that Trump might know more about his onetime friend’s behavior than he has previously acknowledged.
“It makes us ask if he was aware of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s criminal actions, especially given his statement two years later that his good friend Jeffrey ‘likes women on the younger side … no doubt about it,’” Giuffre’s two brothers and her sisters-in-law told The Atlantic in an exclusive statement, their first public response to the president. “We and the public are asking for answers; survivors deserve this.”
Giuffre died by suicide at her home in Australia in late April. In civil litigation and information provided to law enforcement, Giuffre alleged that she had been recruited by Maxwell while working at Mar-a-Lago as a high schooler and had then been sexually abused from around 1999 to 2002 by Epstein, Maxwell, and others. Giuffre also alleged that Epstein had trafficked her to other prominent men. Epstein died in jail in August 2019 while he was awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges.
Giuffre’s family told me that Virginia’s work at Mar-a-Lago was meant to be a fun summertime job but instead led to her being sex trafficked.
Trump has previously denied any wrongdoing related to Epstein. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt noted to me that Trump was directly responding to a question posed by a reporter and did not bring Giuffre up on his own. “The fact remains that President Trump kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his club for being a creep to his female employees,” she said.
The Epstein case has been a subject of intense public interest for more than a decade, amid speculation that prominent public figures who were part of Epstein’s social circle may have also been involved in or had knowledge of his sex-trafficking network. In recent years, conspiracy theorists have claimed without evidence that Epstein did not die by suicide and was instead killed to prevent prominent names—known as “the client list”—from becoming public.
Thousands of files related to the Epstein case have been made public over the years, either by law enforcement or through extensive civil litigation. Some files have been redacted or remain under seal to protect victim identities and other personally identifying information, as required by law.
During the 2024 presidential campaign and in the early months of the Trump administration, many on the right advocated for the release of the so-called Epstein files. Attorney General Pam Bondi is facing increasing criticism for the Justice Department’s response—she first overhyped the release of thousands of pages of already-public material and then alleged that the FBI was withholding Epstein documents, only to state in recent weeks that no more information would be released, that no evidence existed to support a crime by anyone other than Epstein and Maxwell, and that Epstein had killed himself in custody.
Trump and Epstein were chummy friends for years—photos and videos of the two have looped on cable news in recent weeks—but Trump has said that he severed ties with Epstein years before the latter was first arrested and convicted on prostitution-related charges. The president said yesterday that he did so because Epstein was poaching his employees at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s private club in Palm Beach.
When asked by reporters on Air Force One if one of those young women was Giuffre, the president responded: “I think so. I think that was one of the people,” adding that Epstein “stole her.”
“And by the way, she had no complaints about us whatsoever,” he added, without elaborating.
“I told him, I said, Listen, we don’t want you taking our people, whether it’s spa or not spa … And he was fine,” Trump said. “And not too long after, he did it again. And I said, Outta here.”
It is unclear who the additional Mar-a-Lago employee hired by Epstein was or how many employees Epstein poached.
Giuffre alleged that Epstein and Maxwell had trafficked her to multiple men in Epstein’s orbit, including Prince Andrew and the French modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel. Both men have denied wrongdoing. Prince Andrew reached a settlement with Giuffre for an undisclosed amount in 2022. Giuffre later provided crucial information to law enforcement in the United States and France that contributed to investigations into Maxwell, Brunel, and other alleged Epstein co-conspirators. Brunel died by suicide in 2022 while in French custody; at the time, he was being investigated for charges related to the rape and sex-trafficking of minors.
Giuffre’s family—Sky and Amanda Roberts, and Danny and Lanette Wilson—described themselves as still “reeling” from Giuffre’s suicide a few months ago, and said they are speaking out in part because they are alarmed by Maxwell’s recent offer to testify before Congress in exchange for immunity. (A spokesperson for the House Oversight Committee said yesterday that it would not grant Maxwell such a deal.) Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence for her role in Epstein’s sex-trafficking scheme, and last week met with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche for questioning as the Department of Justice scrambles to answer calls for more transparency.
“If our sister could speak today, she would be most angered by the fact that the government is listening to a known perjurer, a woman who repeatedly lied under oath and will continue to do so as long as it benefits her position,” Giuffre’s family wrote, referring to Maxwell.
Maxwell’s attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“The government and the President should never consider giving Ghislaine Maxwell any leniency,” Giuffre’s family wrote. “Maxwell destroyed many young lives, and she was convicted for only a fraction of the crimes she actually committed.”
A senior administration official told me that “no leniency is being given or discussed” and that Trump “himself has said that clemency for Maxwell is not something he is even thinking about at this time.”
Giuffre relatives said that they hope the Trump administration will follow through on its stated promises of transparency and accountability.
“Virginia cooperated with the authorities,” they wrote. “She endured death threats, threats against the lives of her children and family, financial ruin, and her physical and mental well-being were destroyed. She never backed down; she hoped that her strength would inspire other survivors to find the courage to come forward.”
Correction: This story originally misstated the month that Epstein died in 2019. He died in August not June.
*Illustration by The Atlantic. Sources: Emily Michot / Miami Herald / Tribune News Service / Getty; Steve Starr / Corbis / Getty; Davidoff Studios / Getty.