Donald Trump was saying he wants 'justice to be served' when he wished accused child trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell 'well' claims White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany
President Donald Trump was merely wishing that 'justice be served' when he wished Ghislaine Maxwell 'well' despite her arrest for allegedly luring underage girls to pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Thursday.
McEnany addressed blowback from the comment in an interview with 'Fox and Friends' Thursday morning.
Trump got hammered online for sending his best wishes to somehow he acknowledged having known for years, but who is now charged with grooming underage girls who got brought into Epstein's orbit.
'Well, what the president was noting is that the last person who was charged in this case ended up dead in a jail cell, and the president wants justice to be served for the victims in this case. And he prefers this to play out in a courtroom,' McEnany said, referencing Epstein's hanging.
White House press secretary says President Trump 'wants justice to be served for the victims in this case,' when asked about his comment wishing Ghislaine Maxwell 'well.' Maxwell is charged with sex trafficking girls for Jeffrey Epstein
She said she has spoken to Trump about the case.
The president made the comment during a coronavirus press briefing Tuesday. He ignored a shouted question seeking follow up at Wednesday's briefing.
Interviewer Brett Baier told her that a lot of people considered it a 'strange answer' to the question. Some commentators even floated the idea that Trump was dangling the idea of a pardon or sending a signal to Maxwell to keep quiet. Trump is among the many powerful people who socialized with and knew Epstein.
'And I would – let me know one more thing, Brett. You know, this president is the president that banned Jeffrey Epstein from coming to Mar-a-Lago. This president was always on top of this, ahead of this, noting this, banning this man from his property long before this case was even being played out in a court of law,' she said.
Well, what the president was noting is that the last person who was charged in this case ended up dead in a jail cell, and the president wants justice to be served for the victims in this case - White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany
Trump was videotaped talking and joking with Epstein in 1992, years before the financier would be charged with sex trafficking charges.
He has been photographed with Maxwell Epstein and the future first lady.
He also has been accused of using the pardon power for longtime associates who have been charged with crimes but might possess potentially damaging information. Trump commuted the sentence of longtime advisor Roger Stone, who was convicted of lying to Congress about his contacts with WikiLeaks during the 2016 campaign.
In his comments Tuesday, the president admitted meeting Maxwell 'numerous times' over the years in addition to wishing her well.
I just wish her well frankly - President Donald Trump
Trump's connections to Epstein and Maxwell have long come under scrutiny as they mixed in the same wealthy circles for decades, with Trump once describing the convicted pedophile as a 'terrific guy'.
Maxwell, 58, cried as she was denied bail on Tuesday and learned she must stay locked up until her trial next summer, after she pleaded not guilty to charges of luring underage girls so Epstein could sexually abuse them.
The president admitted meeting Jeffrey Epstein's accused madam Ghislaine Maxwell 'numerous times' over the years and wished her well in his Tuesday press conference (pictured)
When asked by a reporter whether he thought Maxwell would turn in the names of powerful people, Trump responded saying he 'hadn't been following it too much' but that he 'wishes her well'.
'I just wish her well frankly,' he said.
'I've met her numerous times over the years especially since I lived in Palm Beach and I guess they lived in Palm Beach.'
Trump then reinforced his well-wishes for Maxwell and said he doesn't know about the 'situation' with Prince Andrew.
'But I wish her well whatever it is,' he said. 'I don't know the situation with Prince Andrew. I don't know, I'm just not aware of it.'
One of Epstein's victims Virginia Roberts Giuffre claims she was coerced into having sex with the Prince Andrew as a 17-year-old - claims the prince strongly denies.
Epstein's sprawling waterfront property in Palm Beach, where many of his victims said they were lured to and sexually abused, is just 1.8 miles down the road from Trump's Mar-a-Lago club where the two men partied and Epstein is accused of procuring victims from
Donald Trump has sent a message of support to Ghislaine Maxwell as she awaits her trial for sex trafficking minors. Pictured the president, with First Lady Melania Trump, Epstein and Maxwell at Mar-a-Lago in 2000 (left) and Trump and Maxwell together at the Anand Jon Fashion Show in September 2000 in New York City (right)
Trump, Melania, Epstein and Maxwell pose together at Trump's Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach in February 2000 (right) and Trump and Maxwell at the Gucci Envy Perfume Launch Benefit For Cancer Patients in New York City in 1997 (left)
In 2002, Trump heaped praise on Epstein calling him a 'terrific guy' who likes women 'on the younger side'. Pictured Trump and Epstein at Mar-a-Lago in 1997 (left) and at a 1992 party (right)
Social media users voiced their shock and outrage that the president would wish a suspected child sex trafficker 'well'.
'WTAF?!? What does that mean? Wish her well?!? In what way? Less prison time? Or get off scot free and welcome her to one of your golf clubs?' tweeted tennis star Martina Navratilova.
Political commentator Tony Schwartz compared Trump's comments to his previous support of Roger Stone.
The political operative's 40-month prison sentence for lying to operatives and witness tampering in the Robert Mueller-led probe into Russia meddling on the 2016 election was commuted by Trump on July 10
'Ghislane Maxwell is Trump's newest Roger Stone. She has the goods on Trump's relationship with pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Is there any doubt she has a hideous story to tell?' Schwartz tweeted.
Amanda Carpenter, author and former senior staffer to Senators Jim DeMint and Ted Cruz, slammed the president's comments saying: 'For those following: The correct answer to the question about whether Maxwell will turn in powerful men should have been 'I hope she cooperates fully so all those who have abused women and children are brought to justice.' Not 'I wish her well.''
Trump knew Epstein and Maxwell for decades, running in the same elite social circles in Florida and New York in the 1980s and 1990s before the pedophile's fall from grace.
Epstein's sprawling waterfront property in Palm Beach, where many of his victims said they were lured to and sexually abused, is just 1.8 miles down the road from Trump's Mar-a-Lago club.
In 1992, the future president organized a 'calendar girls' party with 28 women, with Epstein and himself the only men, according to Vanity Fair.
The two men were also seen on recently surfaced video footage partying together that year at Mar-a-Lago with cheerleaders from the Buffalo Bills.
In the footage, Trump is heard saying: 'Look at her… she's hot.'
In 1997, Trump also flew from Palm Beach to Newark, New Jersey, on Epstein's plane with Maxwell also aboard.
Now famous photos taken at Mar-a-Lago show the president posing with future First Lady Melania Trump, Epstein and Maxwell later in February 2000.
Maxwell and Epstein in 2005. Maxwell, 58, was denied bail last Tuesday and learned she must stay locked up until her sex trafficking trial in summer 2021
Maxwell is currently in custody in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn awaiting trial
Trump heaped praise on Epstein back then calling him a 'terrific guy' who likes women 'on the younger side'.
'He's a lot of fun to be with,' Trump said in an interview with Vanity Fair in 2002.
'It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.'
Trump and Epstein reportedly fell out around 2004, in a dispute over a property purchase.
Four years later in 2018, Epstein pleaded guilty to one count of solicitation of prostitution and one count of solicitation of prostitution with a minor under the age of 18 and was sentenced to 18 months in jail.
The president has since sought to distance himself from Epstein and downplay his relationship with the pedophile.
One month before Epstein died in a New York jail cell in August last year, Trump said he was 'not a fan'.
'I had a falling out with him. I haven't spoken to him in 15 years,' Trump said at a White House press conference.
'I was not a fan of his, that I can tell you.'
Some of Epstein's victims have mentioned Trump and Mar-a-Lago in their accounts of events surrounding the abuse.
The alleged Epstein victim claims her abuser took her to Mar-a-Lago when she was just 14 and showed her to Trump.
She claims Epstein elbowed Trump 'playfully' and said: 'This is a good one, right?'
There is no suggestion Trump knew she was underage or was involved in any abuse.
Roberts Guiffre claims Epstein used Mar-a-Lago to prey on and recruit young girls into his sex-trafficking operation.
She claims she first met the pedophile as a 15-year-old working as a locker room attendant at Mar-a-Lago in 1999.
Newly resurfaced footage from 2015 also shows Trump telling reporters to ask Prince Andrew about Jeffrey Epstein's 'pedophile island'.
In in an interview with Bloomberg, Trump said: 'That island was really a cesspool, there's no question about it.
'Just ask Prince Andrew, he'll tell you about it. The island was an absolute cesspool.'
The connections between the pedophile and the president ramped up last month when Attorney General Bill Barr said Trump had ordered him to fire Geoffrey S. Berman, United States attorney for the Southern District of New York.
Berman's office charged Epstein with child sex trafficking last year.
Epstein was found hanging in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan last August.
His death was ruled a suicide but his attorneys and some family members claim he was murdered to stop him from sharing what he knows about other high profile, powerful people.
Maxwell was denied bail last Tuesday and learned she must stay locked up until her sex trafficking trial in summer 2021.
She is now being held in a Brooklyn jail and pleaded not guilty last week to trafficking minors for Epstein.
Maxwell had been lying low since Epstein's death last year but was arrested earlier in the month, when authorities swooped on her luxury home in New Hampshire where prosecutors say she was hiding out.
She was romantically involved with the pedophile from around 1992, but then became his 'right-hand woman', managing his property empire and, it is alleged, his trafficking of minors.
Maxwell is currently in custody in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn where she has been given paper clothes to prevent her committing suicide.
Donald Trump was saying he wants 'justice to be served' when he wished accused child trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell 'well' claims White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany
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