Trump, Epstein, and the vanishing staff: A story too late?

Donald Trump, the U.S. president, claims he ended his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender, because Epstein had taken young female workers from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.

On his return to the U.S. from a trip to Scotland, Trump alleged that one of those workers was Virginia Giuffre—one of Epstein’s most prominent accusers.

Trump stated: “People who were employed by me were taken out of Mar-a-Lago. In other words, they were gone. When I heard about it, I told him, ‘We don’t want you taking our people.’ Then, not long after that, he did it again, and I said, ‘Get out.’”

Trump, who had maintained close ties with Epstein for years, has become increasingly defensive amid his administration’s resistance to releasing official documents containing information about Epstein’s abuses.

Officials, including U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, have claimed that further document releases risk exposing victims' identities and explicit content related to child exploitation gathered as evidence.

However, Bondi’s remarks have only fueled the controversy. In a February 2025 interview with Fox News, she said: “The list of Epstein’s potential clients is sitting right here on my desk.”

Conspiracy theorists have long believed Epstein kept a list or a black book of contacts to manipulate powerful figures in arts and politics. They also remain skeptical of Epstein’s reported suicide in prison in 2019, viewing it as a cover-up.

Current members of the Trump administration, including FBI Director Kash Patel and his deputy Dan Bongino, have echoed these theories.

However, the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI later released a report that appeared to conclude there was no evidence of such a list and that Epstein had died by suicide, as initially reported by the government.

This finding disappointed some Trump supporters who for years have speculated about Epstein’s connections with powerful figures and the suspicious circumstances of his death.