The publication of Virginia Giuffre’s posthumous memoir has once again placed the focus on the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, an affair that continues to reverberate across political and royal circles in the United States and the United Kingdom. Although only briefly mentioned in the book, the pre-publication hype of the book has once again sparked public outcry over the long-overdue release of Epstein files, which Trump also pledged to release during his campaign but has not.
Prince Andrew Gives Up His Royal Title
The fresh attention follows only days after Prince Andrew relinquished his royal surname under pressure from King Charles III, after new revelations about his close association with Epstein. The book by Giuffre resiles her decade-old claims that she was compelled to have sex with the prince three times, one of which purportedly occurred when she was only 17 years old.
As reported by the BBC, Giuffre also called one such encounter an “orgy” that included Epstein, Prince Andrew, and eight other teenage girls.
Giuffre’s Fidelity to Trump
The ghostwriter for the book, Amy Wallace, told The Washington Post that Giuffre, who took her own life in April at the age of 41, was a huge Trump fan. “She was a big Trump supporter … There were two reasons for it: One, she’d met him. She worked at Mar-a-Lago. Her father worked at Mar-a-Lago. She met Trump a number of times, and he was always super nice to her,” Wallace stated and secondly, he said he was going to drop the Epstein files. He was on her side. That’s how she felt.”
Epstein, Trump, and Mar-a-Lago Connections
Giuffre’s relationship with Epstein started when she was hired at age 17 while employed at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in 2000. She shared having feared that she would “die a sex slave” after being recruited by Epstein’s purported sex-trafficking ring.
Giuffre said Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s longtime friend who was subsequently convicted in 2022 of conspiring to help abuse underage girls, approached her at the resort. During the same period, Trump reportedly shared a friendly relationship with Epstein. In a 2002 New York Magazine profile, Trump described Epstein as a “terrific guy.”
In the book, Giuffre also recalls being introduced to Trump by her father. She writes that Trump once asked her, “Do you babysit at all?” “Within a few nights a week, I was bringing in money, taking care of the children of the rich,” Giuffre remembers in a Vanity Fair excerpt.
Epstein Files and Current Controversy
The so-called Epstein files are still a central source of controversy, especially regarding Trump’s second term. Epstein’s 2019 death in prison while facing trial for sex-trafficking charges did not go much to stifle speculation about the extent of his relationships with influential people globally. With the revival of Giuffre’s tale, there is renewed pressure on the US administration to publish the Epstein documents a step that might expose fresh information about one of the most sinister scandals in recent times.
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