Overview
- Former Mar-a-Lago employees told the Wall Street Journal the club’s spa routinely sent young workers to Jeffrey Epstein’s nearby mansion for massages, manicures and other services in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
- Though not a dues-paying member, Epstein was to be treated like one, staff said, with Ghislaine Maxwell booking appointments and allegedly recruiting spa workers for unauthorized side jobs.
- A previously unreported 2003 incident involved an 18-year-old beautician who returned from a house call saying Epstein pressured her for sex; a manager faxed the allegation to Donald Trump, who employees say ordered Epstein barred from spa services.
- The beautician’s complaint was sent to Mar-a-Lago’s human resources department but not to Palm Beach police, and staff accounts say internal unease dated back years, including warnings voiced by Marla Maples.
- The Justice Department is releasing large batches of Epstein-related documents under a new transparency law and has cautioned that some contain untrue claims about Trump, as the White House dismisses the Journal’s reporting as innuendo and defends Trump’s response.