Some of President Trump’s enemies see his connection to sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein as having the potential to bring him down.
But Trump himself publicly raised the Epstein case unprompted months before he announced his 2016 presidential run and identified another prominent figure as likely to become caught up in the scandal of sex with underage girls — former President Bill Clinton.
The recent arrest of Epstein on sex trafficking charges has brought fresh scrutiny of the disgraced financier’s black book of powerful friends, including presidents past and present.
Trump has played down his ties, saying the two fell out some 15 years ago. In what could be an indication that he harbors no fears about being tainted by Epstein, in an often-overlooked interview in February 2015, Trump brought up the disgraced financier without being asked about him.
On stage at the Conservative Political Action Committee Conference he was asked by Sean Hannity, the Fox News host, for his thoughts on Bill Clinton.
“Nice guy,” he said, before heading in an unexpected direction. “Got a lot of problems coming up, in my opinion, with the famous island with Jeffrey Epstein. Lot of problems.”
A month earlier, in January 2015, newspapers had been abuzz with the latest developments in a long-running lawsuit against him, in which a woman claimed she was loaned out to Epstein’s rich and powerful friends as an underage “sex slave.” Epstein has always denied the allegations.
At the same time, the Trump-friendly National Enquirer published several stories about Epstein, including an interview with one of his accusers.
Sam Nunberg, who was working for the Trump Organization, said he was called into Trump’s office one day, just before the CPAC appearance, as David Pecker, the then National Enquirer owner, was leaving.
He had brought an issue of the magazine featuring a cover story about Prince Andrew and Epstein, according to Nunberg’s account.
They discussed the story, he said, and Trump told him that Pecker had photos of Clinton from Epstein’s island. He said this and the fact that Trump had brought up Epstein on stage at CPAC suggested President Trump had nothing to hide.
“My position is that if the president was willing to talk to me, and go into detail about it, there was absolutely no illegal behavior,” he said.
Epstein, 66, denies charges he ran a sex trafficking operation and sexually abused dozens of underage girls in his New York and Florida homes between 2002 and 2005.
He is being held in custody until his trial. His lawyers say he has a clean record since pleading guilty to prostitution charges in Florida in a 2008 plea deal.
In a statement released earlier this month, a spokesman said Clinton knew nothing about Epstein’s “terrible crimes”. “He’s not spoken to Epstein in well over a decade, and he has never been to Little St. James Island, Epstein’s ranch in New Mexico, or his residence in Florida,” said the statement.
But the Washington Examiner reported this month that Clinton had traveled on Epstein’s “Lolita Express” private jet more times than he said and was not always accompanied by Secret Service agents.
Trump has said that his past association with Epstein was limited: “I knew him like everybody in Palm Beach knew him. He was a fixture in Palm Beach. I don’t think I have spoken to him in 15 years.”
