Jeffrey Epstein, the jet-setting financier who is currently behind bars awaiting trial on charges of child sex trafficking, visited the Clinton White House several times in the early-to-mid 1990s, according to a new report.
Such revelations from the Daily Beast, based on records from the Clinton Library and unnamed sources, further contradict claims that former President Bill Clinton made in a recent official statement about the time frame and frequency of his contacts with the convicted sex offender.
A statement released July 8 by Clinton’s press secretary, Angel Ureña, claimed Clinton had only met with Epstein beginning in the early 2000s. The statement had likely already been disproven by revelations that Clinton attended a three-hour fundraising dinner in 1995 where Epstein was present, but the new report pushes the timeline of the Clinton-Epstein relationship even earlier.
The 14-page unsealed indictment against Epstein alleges he “sexually exploited and abused dozens of minor girls at his homes in Manhattan, New York and Palm Beach, Florida, among other locations” between 2002 and 2005 and perhaps beyond. Some of the victims were allegedly as young as 14 at the time the alleged crimes occurred.
So far, Clinton has only admitted that he had “one meeting with Epstein in his Harlem office in 2002“ and that “around the same time made one brief visit to Epstein’s New York apartment.”
The new report states that Epstein made a $10,000 donation to the White House Historical Association, with documents from the Clinton Library strongly suggesting that both “Mr. Jeffrey Epstein and Ms. Ghislaine Maxwell” attended a White House reception for Clinton donors in 1993. Maxwell, a long-time Epstein associate, befriended the Clintons and later attended Chelsea’s wedding. A press release from Hillary Clinton’s office about the event also listed Epstein as a donor for the association.
The article also cites a source with knowledge of the situation who claims that Epstein met in the White House “at least three times” with controversial Clinton aide Mark Middleton, whose access to the White House was reportedly curtailed in 1996 because Middleton had been trading on his access to gain new business clients.
And the piece also notes that Epstein is mentioned in another Clinton Library document from 1995, where a letter from Clinton administration official Lynn Forester de Rothschild to Clinton thanks him for their recent conversation at Sen. Ted Kennedy’s home, where she says she used her “15 seconds of access” to talk about “Jeffrey Epstein and currency stabilization.” Why Forester de Rothschild would be speaking with Clinton about Epstein was unclear.
Epstein’s White House visits in the 1990s and Clinton’s attendance at a fundraising dinner in 1995 where Epstein showed up are not the only things that contradict Clinton’s official statement from two weeks ago.
Clinton’s statement claimed that “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,” but a Washington Examiner review of the flight manifest records shows that Clinton actually went on at least 27 flights on Epstein’s “Lolita Express” totaling at least six trips, not four. Clinton’s official statement leaves off a trip from Florida to New York, as well as a second lengthy trip across the Asian continent.
Clinton has not yet clarified these discrepancies with the Washington Examiner.
The federal judge presiding over Epstein’s case denied him bail last week, agreeing with prosecutors that the seriousness of his crimes, his mysterious wealth, his international travel, and his possession of a foreign passport with a fake name from the 1980s all make him a threat to the community and a serious flight risk.
