Embattled New York Republican Rep. George Santos once said he believed Jeffrey Epstein was ‘murdered’ and claimed the same thing could happen to Ghislaine Maxwell while in U.S. custody, in a newly resurfaced interview.
Santos told The Rory Sauter Show in August 2020 that he had met the late pedophile a ‘couple’ of times and described him as a ‘cordial gentleman.’
Epstein killed himself while awaiting court proceedings in a New York City jail after he was charged with sex trafficking and other counts in 2019.
His death has sparked conspiracy theories that he was killed to protect more powerful people who participated in his alleged child trafficking rings.
Pressed by the far-right host on a theory that Epstein was still alive, Santos maintained he was murdered – but added ‘anything can happen’ in this day and age.
Embattled Republican Rep. George Santos called late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein a ‘cordial gentleman’ in a newly-resurfaced 2020 interview
The freshman congressman has admitted to lying about his educational and career credentials and fabricating details about his heritage. Since then he’s faced growing scrutiny as more of his backstory unravels.
Among the most recent revelations is that his mother was not in New York City’s World Trade Center during the September 11 terror attacks – as he’d claimed – but that she was in Brazil, her country of origin.
But in the 2020 interview, Santos said without elaborating that his mother had ‘fled socialism in Europe.’
Toward the end of his interview Santos was asked about Maxwell’s imprisonment in a New York jail – to which he issued a full-throated call for her to be sent outside of the country’s borders.
Santos claimed they’d met a ‘couple’ of times and said, ‘who would know that guy has an island that sex trafficked little girls and boys, to you know, satisfy the pleasure of Prince Andrew and Bill Clinton?’
‘She should be placed offshore where nobody of the big guns in the United States have a flying clue of where she is,’ he said.
‘She should be offered the protections of…foreign custodianship, so that she is not murdered just like Epstein was, and doesn’t go to the tomb with all the dirty secrets of the higher-ups in the control of this country.’
Santos added that he’s ‘not a big conspiracy theorist.’
Pressed on the theory of Epstein still being alive, he eventually seemed to concede, ‘Look, it’s 2020. I’ve seen the most bizarre, unthinkable, and unimaginable happen this year.’
‘I wouldn’t put it past me that he’s still walking around and then we’re all like, “Oh, my God, that guy’s alive,” and we can’t tell. So you know what, it’s 2020, anything can happen.’
But Santos maintained his belief the disgraced billionaire was murdered – while revealing they’d been face-to-face while questioning the circumstances of his death.
He said Epstein’s former girlfriend and accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell ‘should be offered the protections of…foreign custodianship, so that she is not murdered just like Epstein was, and doesn’t go to the tomb with all the dirty secrets of the higher-ups in the control of this country’
‘I met Epstein in a couple of private equity conferences,’ Santos said. ‘I’m six-two, and the guy was taller than me. There’s just no way you can hang yourself off of a bunk bed at that height.’
Asked about what Epstein was like in person, Santos first said he did not ‘really get to know a good feel for the guy’ but seemed to praise his character from the little he did claim to know.
‘From what I- have my you know, my coffee, hi and bye, two minute conversation standing by a pastry table, grabbing some coffee – he was a very pleasant individual,’ Santos said.
‘I’m not saying he’s a pleasant person, and especially after everything that’s come out in media, but you know, a very pleasant guy, very cordial gentleman and kind.’
He added, ‘Who would know that guy has an island that sex trafficked little girls and boys, to you know, satisfy the pleasure of Prince Andrew and Bill Clinton?’