What do the Jeffrey Epstein documents reveal about his ties to Clinton?

Former president Bill Clinton faces renewed public scrutiny after being identified multiple times in the newly unsealed court documents detailing the associates of late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Clinton is described as a “close personal friend” of the disgraced financier, though he is not accused of any illegal activity, and reportedly “did not take the bait” when introduced to underage girls, according to the documents.

Clinton’s name appears almost 100 times so far in the material, tranches of which were released on Wednesday and Thursday, alongside other high-profile figures including Prince Andrew and Donald Trump.

Testimony from alleged Epstein victim Johanna Sjoberg claimed that the financier once told her that Clinton “likes them young” – referring to girls.

However, fellow Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre said that although Clinton spent time on Epstein’s private island of Little St. James, in the US Virgin Islands, there was “no evidence” he was involved in wrongdoing.

Ms Giuffre claimed that she flew there with the former president in a helicopter piloted by Epstein’s former girlfriend and partner in crime, Ghislaine Maxwell. “I only met Bill [Clinton] twice but Jeffrey told me they were good friends,” her testimony read.

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“We all dined together that night. Jeffrey was at the head of the table. Bill was at his left. I sat across from him… Ghislaine was at Bill’s left and at the left of Ghislaine there were two olive-skinned brunettes who’d flown in with us from New York.

“I’d say they were no older than 17, very innocent-looking… Maybe Jeffrey thought they would entertain Bill, but I saw no evidence that he was interested in them.”

She added that Epstein and Maxwell “seemed to have a very good relationship” with Clinton and that the trio had told “blokey jokes” around the dinner table.

But in later testimony, Ms Giuffre claimed that the former president attempted to threaten magazine Vanity Fair into not writing about Epstein’s alleged sex trafficking.

In Thursday’s tranche of documents, Ms Giuffre said that Mr Clinton had “walked into” the magazine’s office and pressured them not to write about “his good friend J.E”.

The alleged incident was described in a May 2011 email to journalist Sharon Churcher, then working for The Mail on Sunday, discussing the best way to publicise Ms Giuffre’s claims against Epstein.

“When I was doing some research into VF yesterday, it does concern me what they could want to write about me considering that B Clinton walked into VF and threatened them not to write sex-trafficking articles about his good friend JE,” Ms Giuffre wrote.

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Ms Giuffre did not say where the information she alleged came from.

But a spokesperson for Vanity Fair’s former editor Graydon Carter told The Daily Telegraph that the incident “categorically did not happen”.

Sources who worked at the magazine around that time also told Insider that it never happened, and the journalist whose story was supposedly at issue also cast doubt on the incident when it was first reported by Gawker back in 2007.

Some former Vanity Fair journalists have previously claimed that Epstein himself put pressure on Mr Carter not to investigate his misdeeds, though Mr Carter has also disputed this.

The Independent has asked Mr Clinton and Mr Carter for comment.

Shortly before the documents were released this week, Clinton was seen visiting Mexico with his wife, Hillary Clinton.

The former president has vehemently denied any wrongdoing. Simply being included in these documents does not indicate any wrongdoing related to Epstein or anyone else.

A spokesperson for Clinton said in 2019: “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.”

This story was amended at 5:06pm Eastern Time on 5 Jan 2024 to add new details about Giuffre’s claim regarding Vanity Fair.