Convicted sex felon Jeffrey Epstein was allegedly "emboldened" to commit his crimes after observing former US president Bill Clinton "get away with" the Monica Lewinsky affair.
An unnamed actress who was friends with Epstein in the 1980s is cited by Mother Jones as saying:
“Seeing a powerful guy like Clinton get away with what he got away with… I think it just emboldened him to think he could do whatever he wanted.”
Prior to his arrest in July of 2019, when he was charged with running a network that sex trafficked underage girls, Epstein was known for his association with some of the world's most rich and powerful people, including Bill Clinton.
In 1998, then-President Clinton was impeached after it emerged he had embarked upon an affair in November 1995 with a 21-year old unpaid intern, Monica Lewinsky.
Over the course of a year and a half, the president and Lewinsky had nearly a dozen sexual encounters in the White House.
Clinton was charged with perjury and obstruction of justice, yet was acquitted after a 21-day Senate trial.
The unnamed actress is cited as claiming she was a witness to the transformation that Jeffrey Epstein underwent once he began amassing his wealth.
“When he was younger and living in New York there weren’t a lot of young girls… I could see it progressing as he got older, more powerful, more money,” she was quoted as saying.
Maxwell ‘Key’ to Sexual ‘Production Line’
The friend of the late billionaire also offered additional insight into Epstein's relationship with British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell.
The daughter of a British publishing tycoon, Robert Maxwell, initially spurned the financier’s romantic advances, claims the friend. However, after the sudden death of her father, she found herself emotionally dependent on him.
“He resented her for rejecting him when she didn’t need him, and now that she did, he was going to exploit it… She used him and he used her, and that’s where this whole sexual production line came in. She needed to be essential for him. [Recruiting girls] is how she kept her place," the actress claims.
The British socialite is also known to have been friends with Bill Clinton, and was photographed with him on board Jeffrey Epstein's private jet.
Maxwell is currently being held in New York, awaiting trial on charges of enticement of minors, sex trafficking, and perjury over her alleged involvement in Jeffrey Epstein's crimes.
The pedophile’s former girlfriend and alleged pimp was arrested by the FBI at the beginning of July and is being accused of grooming underage girls for Epstein's sexual use.
Often called Epstein’s “right-hand woman,” Maxwell is also said to have introduced the jet-setting businessman to many powerful people, such as now-disgraced Prince Andrew, current US President Donald Trump and former US President Bill Clinton.
Ghislaine Maxwell pleaded not guilty to all charges and denies any wrongdoing.
Convicted sex felon Jeffrey Epstein, who died in a prison cell on 10 August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, has been accused by dozens of women of abusing them as minors.
Most were allegedly committed at his vast number of luxurious residences, including his Manhattan mansion, his compound in Palm Beach, Florida, and the private Caribbean island of Little St James.