A new report presents more evidence that Bill Clinton’s recent statement about his supposed limited connection to Jeffrey Epstein left out a significant amount of contact between the former president and the man accused of sex trafficking “dozens” of underage girls over the years.
Two days after billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein was arrested on charges of “sexually exploit[ing] and abus[ing] dozens of minor girls” between 2002 and 2005, a Clinton spokesperson released a statement about Clinton’s contact with Epstein.
“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,” the statement read. “Staff, supporters of the foundation, and his Secret Service detail traveled on every leg of every trip. He had one meeting with Epstein in his Harlem office in 2002, and around the same time made one brief visit to Epstein’s New York apartment with a staff member and his security detail. 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,” Clinton’s spokesman added.
Clinton’s preemptive statement has already been found to have left out key details, including the former president and Epstein attending the same fundraiser in 1995 and flight records indicating that Clinton had been on Epstein’s “Lolita Express” over two-dozen times, taking “at least six trips, not four,” according to The Washington Examiner. But a new report by Emily Shugerman and Suzi Parker published by The Daily Beast Wednesday presents evidence that the contact between the two men was even more extensive and went back even further, as early as 1993, “casting doubt on the oft-circulated narrative that the two only began associating after Clinton left office.”
“As early as 1993, records show, Epstein donated $10,000 to the White House Historical Association and attended a donors’ reception hosted by Bill and Hillary Clinton,” the report reads. “Around the same time, according to a source familiar with the connection, Epstein visited presidential aide Mark Middleton several times at the White House. Two years later, businesswoman Lynn Forester de Rothschild wrote a personal letter to Clinton thanking him for their talk about the financier.”
“How Epstein entered Clinton’s orbit remains unclear,” Shugerman and Parker write. “When the president released his initial statement on Epstein, he did not explain the multiple other trips he appears to have taken on the financier’s plane—including one flight to Westchester with Epstein, his alleged madam Ghislaine Maxwell, and an ‘unnamed female.’ Clinton also failed to mention the intimate 1995 fundraising dinner at the Palm Beach home of Revlon mogul Ron Perelman, where Clinton hobnobbed with the likes of Epstein, Don Johnson, and Jimmy Buffett.”
But The Daily Beast now adds a 1993 fundraiser to the list of apparently omitted details in Clinton’s statement. “In late September of 1993, Bill and Hillary Clinton hosted a reception for supporters who had contributed to recent White House renovations,” the report states. One of those documents lists Epstein as having been in attendance. A letter sent to Epstein the following month thanked him for his $10,000 contribution.
“Epstein’s name also turns up in connection with another shadowy figure in the Clinton administration: White House aide Mark E. Middleton,” The Daily Beast reports. Middleton joined the administration in 1993 as a special assistant to Chief of Staff Mack McClarty and in 1994 was given the title “Deputy to the Counselor.” During that period, the outlet reports, “a source with knowledge of the situation” said that Epstein met with Middleton at the White House at least three times. What they discussed remains unclear.
A letter dated April 27, 1995, from Lynn Forester (later Lynn Forester de Rothschild) to then-President Clinton also mentions Epstein: “Dear Mr. President: It was a pleasure to see you recently at Senator Kennedy’s house. There was too much to discuss and too little time. Using my fifteen seconds of access to discuss Jeffrey Epstein and currency stabilization, I neglected to talk to you about a topic near and dear to my heart. Namely, affirmative action and the future…”
While representatives for Middleton, de Rothschild, and Epstein have not responded to requests for comment, Clinton’s team issued an incensed response. “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,” a spokesperson told The Daily Beast. “Any suggestion to the contrary is both factually inaccurate and irresponsible.” (Read the full report here.)
Related: Jeffrey Epstein Found Injured In Jail After Possible Suicide Attempt Or Assault, Report Says