Maxwell arrest worried Trump, book claims

‘She say anything about me?’ president allegedly asked after socialite’s arrest for trafficking girls

DONALD TRUMP asked aides if Ghislaine Maxwell had mentioned him after she was arrested for trafficking girls to be abused by Jeffrey Epstein, a new book claims.

The former president also insisted he never went to what he called Epstein’s “whore island” in the Caribbean.

After seeing an article in The New York Post in July 2020 that said Maxwell would “name names”, Mr Trump is alleged to have asked campaign advisers: “She say anything about me?”

Mr Trump has ties to both Maxwell and Epstein, whose Palm Beach residence was not far from Mar-a-lago.

The resort, owned by Mr Trump, is where Maxwell first met Virginia Roberts – now Virginia Giuffre – who recently reached an out-of-court financial settlement with Prince Andrew.

Epstein also took one of his victims – known as “Jane” – to Mar-a-lago and introduced the then 14-year-old to Mr Trump, a court heard last year. Mr Trump was not accused of any wrongdoing.

In Confidence Man by New York Times journalist Maggie Haberman, she describes a meeting in New York in early 2015 between Mr Trump and National Enquirer owner David Pecker.

The newspaper boss arrived at Trump Tower “with a copy of the tabloid featuring Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, and Jeffrey Epstein, the investor and convicted sex offender and one-time friend of Trump, with whom Trump had fallen out years earlier,” the book says.

It continues that Mr Pecker and Mr Trump “talked about Epstein’s private island, where he was rumoured to bring powerful men to have sexual encounters with young women. Trump called it ‘whore island’ and told aides he had never been there.”

The book makes a number of claims, including that Mr Trump flushed official documents down the lavatory at the White House, wanted to bomb Mexican drug labs and nearly fired his daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner on Twitter.

Mr Trump, who sat down for three interviews with Ms Haberman, has since called it a “fake book” with “many made-up stories”.

Yesterday, the former president was facing fresh claims over documents seized by the FBI at Mar-a-lago.

The Washington Post reported that he asked one of his lawyers to tell the National Archives and Records Administration early this year that all materials requested by the agency had been returned. The lawyer is said to have declined because he was not sure the statement was true, according to people familiar with the matter.

A Trump spokesman did not respond to specific questions about the claim, the paper said.

Embroiling himself in another legal battle, Mr Trump has also announced that he is suing CNN for $475million (£420m) in damages over claims the cable TV network defamed him with comparisons to Adolf Hitler and Chairman Mao.

CNN declined to comment on the case.