Question
How did Virginia Giuffre first meet Jeffrey Epstein?
Answer
Virginia Roberts (now Giuffre) first met Jeffrey Epstein around the year 2000 at Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump’s private club in Palm Beach, Florida, where she was working as a locker room attendant.
She was approximately 16 or 17 years old at the time. Ghislaine Maxwell approached her and struck up a conversation, eventually asking Virginia about her career interests. When Virginia mentioned that she was interested in massage therapy (she had been training in the area), Maxwell told her about a potential opportunity working for a “wonderful man” who needed a massage therapist.
Virginia met Epstein that same day or shortly after, and was subsequently asked to provide him with a massage at his Palm Beach estate. On that occasion, she alleged that the massage became sexual, and that she was paid and asked to return.
This became the pattern — she was paid for subsequent visits and was gradually drawn deeper into the network’s operations, including being introduced to Maxwell’s London home, Epstein’s island, and eventually being directed to have sexual contact with other men including, she alleged, Prince Andrew.
Virginia’s account of how she was recruited — through apparently benign professional conversation at a legitimate venue — is a textbook example of the grooming and recruitment methodology that Epstein’s network employed.
Sources
- Virginia Giuffre, deposition testimony in Giuffre v. Maxwell
- Giuffre, interviews with BBC and other media
- Bradley Edwards, “Relentless Pursuit” (2019)