In a Thursday night interview on CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins, the family of Virginia Giuffre — a prominent advocate for sex trafficking survivors who died by suicide in April 2025 — pleaded with US President Donald Trump not to grant Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted accomplice of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a pardon.Giuffre’s brothers Sky Roberts and Danny Wilson, along with their spouses Amanda Roberts and Lanette Wilson, expressed shock over President Trump’s comments earlier in the day.During a press conference, Trump claimed Epstein had “stolen” Giuffre from his Mar-A-Lago estate, where she worked as a spa attendant starting in 2000 at the age of 16.“She’s not an object, she’s a person,” Sky Roberts said through tears. “She’s a mom. She’s a sister. And she was recruited by Maxwell. She wasn’t stolen.”In a statement released earlier Thursday, the family said Trump’s comments make "us ask if he was aware of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell's criminal actions.”White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt later clarified that the president was responding to a reporter’s question and had not brought up Giuffre himself.“The fact remains that President Trump kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his club for being a creep to his female employees,” Leavitt said..Ghislaine Maxwell sentenced to 20 years in prison for sex trafficking.Danny Wilson spoke emotionally about the lasting impact of Epstein and Maxwell’s crimes. “It was really personal for me that these women… they've gone on with their lives, and they've had kids, and they've bought houses and they have jobs, but this still follows them. The pain that comes from this type of behaviour in our society has followed them,” he said.“I don't look at this as a Democrat or a Republican thing. I look at this as a human thing. Once that collective voice is together, we’re untouchable — the innocents, the people that go through this. That’s what I think is going to stop this type of behaviour.”In a 2016 deposition, Giuffre described being recruited by Maxwell under the pretence of a job opportunity, only to be groomed and abused by Epstein and “passed around like a platter of fruit” to powerful men.She later became a prominent voice in exposing Epstein’s sex trafficking ring, suing Britain’s Prince Andrew in 2021 for sexual abuse. The case was settled in February 2022 for an undisclosed amount.“When are we going to start believing survivors?” a visibly shaken Sky Roberts asked Collins. “These survivors had something taken away from them they can never get back, and it's time for these monsters to be exposed and get something they can never get back, which is their freedom.”.Mark Carney attended Prince Andrew’s Palace dinner after Jeffrey Epstein scandal.Giuffre’s sister-in-law Amanda Roberts said she believes Virginia would have wanted “those monsters to be exposed for who they are and what they’ve done,” and all the Epstein case files publicly released.Sigrid McCawley, Giuffre’s former attorney, later joined CNN and warned against giving Maxwell any platform.“The one thing we know for sure is that Ghislaine Maxwell is a masterful manipulator," she said. "She lies without concern over and over and over again. You can see that in the deposition. “It wouldn't make sense to me for someone to give her an audience, because the only thing she’s going to say is things that will benefit her, and they will not necessarily be truthful.”Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for recruiting and trafficking minors for sex, has asked the US Supreme Court to overturn her conviction and is reportedly seeking a presidential pardon.Kevin Madden, a senior partner at Penta Group and former adviser to Mitt Romney, told Collins following the family’s interview that, “This ultimately has to be about accountability. One of the big worries I have is, will there ever be enough finality?"Will there ever be a point where people feel satisfied that everybody has been held accountable, and that some level of justice has been delivered?”
