The family of Virginia Giuffre, one of the most prominent public accusers of financier and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, issued a statement Wednesday and gave an interview on Thursday suggesting that President Donald Trump was aware of the criminal actions of Epstein while he associated with the abuser of teenage girls.

Two brothers and two sisters-in-law of Giuffre were responding to Trump’s statement on Tuesday that Epstein “stole” Giuffre, then 16, from his Mar-a-Lago club, where she was working as a spa attendant in the summer of 2000. Giuffre committed suicide this past April.

Speaking on Air Force One while returning from his trip to Scotland, Trump told reporters that a second case of Epstein hiring away staff from Mar-a-Lago led him to break off relations with Epstein. Trump said: “People were taken out of the spa, hired by him… When I heard about it, I told him, I said, ‘Listen, we don’t want you taking our people…’ Not too long after that, he did it again. And I said, ‘Out of here.’”

In response to a reporter’s question about Giuffre, Trump said, “I think she worked at the spa. I think she was one of the people. Yeah, he stole her.”

Previously, the media narrative was that Trump and Epstein had parted ways in 2004 after a dispute over the purchase of a Palm Beach estate.

In their statement, first published in The Atlantic, the family said, “It was shocking to hear President Trump invoke our sister and say that he was aware that Virginia had been ‘stolen’ from Mar-a-Lago.” They continued, “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.’”

The reference was to a New York magazine profile of Epstein published in October 2002 that quoted Trump as saying, “I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy. He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side, no doubt about it.”

Earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal published a letter Trump sent to Epstein for the latter’s 50th birthday that included the outline of a naked woman’s breasts and a reference to mutually shared “secrets.”

Giuffre said she was flown around the world for appointments with men, including Britain’s Prince Andrew, while she was 17 and 18 years old.

In their statement, the family said:

Virginia cooperated with the authorities. 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.

They called for the release of the FBI files on the Epstein investigation, which the Trump administration, after promising to carry it out, is now refusing to do, enraging sections of Trump’s political base. They also opposed any pardon or commutation of the 20-year sentence of Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s former girlfriend and accomplice in trafficking underage girls for abuse by prominent political and business figures, none of whom have been named, let alone prosecuted. Trump has not ruled out leniency for Maxwell in return for testimony favorable to him.

Last week in an extraordinary action, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, Trump’s former personal lawyer, met over two days with Maxwell in a court house in Tallahassee, Florida, where she has been incarcerated. Maxwell’s lawyer said they discussed over 100 people in relation to the Epstein case, very possibly an implied threat to Democrats and others implicated in the sex ring.

On Friday, it was reported that the government had moved Maxwell from the low security prison in Tallahassee to a minimum security women’s prison in Texas.

The family’s statement declared that Maxwell was responsible for “the extraordinary violence and abuse she put not just our sister Virginia through, but many other survivors, who may number in the thousands.”

While Trump said he broke off relations with Epstein “not long” after Epstein hired Giuffre away from Mar-a-Lago, Epstein remained on the membership rolls of Trump’s Palm Beach club until October 2007, according to The Grifter’s Club, a 2020 book co-authored by reporter Sarah Blaskey. He was barred from the club after hitting on the teenage daughter of another member, the book said.

Asked Thursday by reporters at the White House if he knew why Epstein was taking women from Mar-a-Lago, Trump said, “No, I don’t know really why.” However, in 2019 comments to the Washington Post, former Trump aide Sam Nunberg described asking Trump about his ties to Epstein as Trump was gearing up for his 2016 presidential campaign. Nunberg said Trump told him he had objected to Epstein recruiting a young woman who worked at Mar-a-Lago to give Epstein massages.