Bill Clinton's History With Jeffrey Epstein, Explained

After years of continued speculation, the highly confidential court documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, the infamous financier accused of sexually exploiting minors, have been disclosed to the public. The revelation corroborated long-held suspicions, confirming Epstein's association with a long list of high-profile individuals, which include Prince Andrew, Michael Jackson, David Copperfield, and former U.S. presidents Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, as reported by The Guardian. These documents surfaced as a result of Virginia Giuffre's 2015 lawsuit against Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's ex-partner, accusing her of trafficking Giuffre to the rich and the powerful. At the time, however, Giuffre did not implicate Clinton in any misconduct.

Then again, according to the Daily Mail, Giuffre detailed in her forthcoming memoir manuscript, "Billionaire's Playboy Club," an incident where she purportedly witnessed Clinton on Epstein's private Caribbean island, accompanied by "two beautiful girls around either arm." What's more, as reported by The Wall Street Journal, the recently uncovered documents also contained a deposition from another one of Epstein's victims, who alleged that Epstein once insinuated that "Clinton likes them young, referring to girls."

While Clinton has consistently refuted claims that he has ever stepped foot on the island and maintained that he never had any inappropriate ties with Epstein (more on this later), questions linger about the true nature of their connection. How did a former president end up being chummy with a figure of controversy? As it turns out, the two go way back, with their relationship coming to light when Epstein became one of the Clinton Foundation's highly esteemed benefactors, donating as much as $25,000 to the organization.

Bill Clinton and Jeffrey Epstein once shared a mutual admiration, as evidenced in an interview with New York Magazine. Epstein lauded Clinton as the "world's greatest politician," while Clinton waxed poetic about his friend, saying that he was "both a highly successful financier and a committed philanthropist with a keen sense of global markets and an in-depth knowledge of twenty-first-century science." He added: "I especially appreciated his insights and generosity during the recent trip to Africa to work on democratization, empowering the poor, citizen service, and combating HIV/AIDS."

If Clinton thought Epstein was generous, it was reportedly because the financier had lent him planes to take him to different places across the globe for the Clinton Foundation. In fact, their relationship only became public when the media took an interest in the fact that the former president rode one of Epstein's jets. Meanwhile, The Daily Beast reported that the two had known each other since the 1990s when Epstein would take trips to the White House with Ghislaine Maxwell.

While the public narrative around their connection primarily revolved around philanthropic efforts, Lady Victoria Hervey, Prince Andrew's ex-girlfriend and close acquaintance of Maxwell, suggested otherwise. In the ITV documentary, "Ghislaine, Prince Andrew and the Paedophile," she claimed the two had a deeper bond. "He [Clinton] was super close to Jeffrey Epstein," she said, adding that Epstein even had a painting of Clinton in his home. "They were like brothers, you know, and he was close to Ghislaine as well."

In July 2019, roughly a month before Jeffrey Epstein died of an apparent suicide, Angel Ureña, the spokesperson for Bill Clinton, released a statement that showed a firm denial that the former president ever had improper associations with Epstein, as well as awareness of Epstein's criminal activities. "President Clinton knows nothing about the terrible crimes Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty to in Florida some years ago, or those with which he has been recently charged in New York," Ureña declared.

While a 2016 Fox News report suggested that Clinton had taken Epstein's jet at least 26 times, Clinton's camp debunked the claim, clarifying that it was only a handful of occasions. "In 2002 and 2003, President Clinton took a total of four trips on Jeffrey Epstein's airplane: one to Europe, one to Asia, and two to Africa, which included stops in connection with the work of the Clinton Foundation," a statement obtained by the Daily Mail noted. Plus, apart from a meeting in Harlem and a visit to Epstein's NYC apartment, there were no other notable instances of Clinton fraternizing with Epstein. "He's not spoken to Epstein in well over a decade, and has never been to Little St. James Island, Epstein's ranch in New Mexico, or his residence in Florida."

Even as more claims have been made against Clinton in the years since, his representatives have consistently maintained his innocence. They also did not oppose the public release of the documents. In a tweet, Ureña wrote: "The story keeps changing, the facts don't. President Clinton has never been to the island."