Donald Trump wishes Ghislaine Maxwell well amid reports of joke about ‘randy Prince Andy’

Donald Trump has told reporters that he “wishes Ghislaine Maxwell well” following her arrest but does not “know the situation” regarding Prince Andrew’s alleged links to late convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

The US president was responding to questions about whether Maxwell would “turn in powerful men” as part of a future plea deal with US prosecutors, The Telegraph says. The British socialite has pleaded not guilty to six charges relating to her alleged role in grooming young girls for her close friend Epstein to abuse.

Speaking at a White House press conference on Monday, Trump said that he hadn’t “really been following” the case but that he knew Maxwell after meeting her “numerous times” when she lived near his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida.

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The president then declined to comment on Prince Andrew’s alleged relationship with Epstein, who died in an apparent suicide in his New York prison cell while awaiting trial last summer.

“I don’t know the situation with Prince Andrew. Just don't know, not aware of it,” Trump said.

His comments cames days after the emergence of footage dating from 2015 in which Trump described Epstein’s Little Saint James private island as “an absolute cesspool” before adding: “Just ask Prince Andrew.”

And in a further twist, an ex-employee of Epstein has told The Sun that she walked in on her former boss and Maxwell joking over a “secretly filmed clip” of Prince Andrew with a topless woman.

“I do not know who the girl was on the video but she was topless. I really can’t say what her age was,” said the 48-year-old woman, who says the footage was shot at Epstein’s £60m Manhattan home.

“I couldn’t see all of Andrew so I don’t know if he was clothed or not. It looked like it was filmed in a bedroom. I don’t think Andrew knew he was being filmed.”

The woman - referred to under the false name of “Tiffany Doe” - claims that Maxwell then said: “Oh, that’s Randy Andy for you.”

“Jeffrey laughed at that and I of course immediately recognised who it was on the tape,” said the former employee, who is working with US lawyers representing alleged victims of the late billionaire financier and Maxwell.