Trump Says He Ended Friendship With Epstein Because He ‘Stole People That Worked For Me’

From left, American real estate developer Donald Trump and his girlfriend (and future wife), former model Melania Knauss, financier (and future convicted sex offender) Jeffrey Epstein, and British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell pose together at the Mar-a-Lago club, Palm Beach, Florida, February 12, 2000. (Photo by Davidoff Studios/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein ended after Epstein hired people who had worked for Trump. The Republican president said Monday that he had warned Epstein about hiring Trump staff and that when Epstein did it again, “I threw him out of the place.” The place Trump refers to is his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida. Authorities say the disgraced financier killed himself in a New York jail cell in 2019 as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges. The case has dogged Trump after he and his top allies stoked conspiracy theories about Epstein’s death.