Ex-president Bill Clinton should face investigation over his ties to the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein and his cohort Ghislaine Maxwell in the wake of her prosecution, reported The Sun, citing multiple US-barred attorneys.
“Sophisticated predator” Maxwell, a former girlfriend of the tycoon, was convicted in a New York courtroom on 29 December of recruiting and grooming underage girls, some as young as 14, for Epstein’s sexual abuse between 1994 and 2004. She faces up to 60 years in jail, with sentencing expected at a later date.
The sex trafficking couple had boasted connections with the rich and the powerful, such as politicians, Hollywood celebrities, and royalty. Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton, Bill Gates and Donald Trump have all at some point been linked with the hedge-fund manager.
These high profile associates of Epstein and Maxwell should be investigated by US prosecutors, insist legal experts cited by the outlet. They underscored that this could be invaluable in the hunt for more accomplices of the billionaire who died in his cell in 2019 while awaiting sex trafficking charges.
While Clinton, who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001, is not accused of any wrongdoing, his association with the late sex trafficker has triggered speculations. In the course of the just-concluded trial of Ghislaine Maxwell in New York, Clinton’s name was mentioned by the pilot of the so-called “Lolita Express” – Epstein’s infamous private plane.
Larry Visoski testified in court that he remembered Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, and a plethora of Hollywood celebrities being among the passengers. He also testified that while flying, he never witnessed any sexual activity.
‘Who Else Knew?’
Attorney Lisa Bloom, who represented eight of Epstein's accusers in civil cases against his estate, was quoted as saying that all associates of “partners in crime” Epstein and Maxwell who ever boarded his private jets should be thoroughly investigated by prosecutors.
According to Bloom, anyone who "participated in this massive pedophilia ring should be quaking in his or her boots". She added:
"There are probably thousands of victims in total, so when you're talking about the scandal, there has to be others who were involved. The question is, who else knew they were abusing girls besides Jeffery and Ghislaine?”
Prosecutors should investigate everyone who rode on Epstein's jet "at a minimum", Wendy J Murphy, a former Massachusetts prosecutor, was cited by the outlet as saying.
"The case that was presented against Maxwell almost implied that the only people she and Epstein were servicing in this ring was themselves, and we know that's not true. It feels like, at the end of the day, that there's another shoe to drop - or many shoes to drop," Murphy was cited as saying. She added that the so-called “customers” have so far “evaded any accountability”.
Attorney and former counsel to President Donald Trump, Jenna Ellis, was quoted as adding that “known associates like Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew, and others should be brought to justice if they had any involvement in sexual exploitation of minors".
Both Bloom and Murphy deemed it unlikely that Ghislaine Maxwell would dish information on any high-profile figures linked to Epstein in exchange for a lighter sentence.
This echoes the words of Maxwell’s brother, Ian, who was cited by The Sunday Times as saying:
“Prosecution confirmed no plea bargain offers were made or received… I expect that position to be maintained.”
However, even if any high-profile figures were accused of Epstein-linked wrongdoing, there is "almost no likelihood" they would face any criminal charges, former US Prosecutor Bradley Simon told the publication. He cited the statute of limitations as likely having expired while adding that "prosecutors tend to shy away from the very powerful in the very rich".
"Under no circumstances do I expect anyone else to be criminally charged," he suggested.
Clinton-Epstein Links
Bill Clinton has always denied having a close relationship with Epstein.
In 2002, the former president flew on Epstein’s private jet after he had started the nonprofit group, the Clinton Foundation, which is believed to be how he connected with the financier.
“Jeffrey is both a highly successful financier and a committed philanthropist with a keen sense of global markets and an in-depth knowledge of twenty-first-century science,” Clinton was cited as saying by New York magazine in 2002.
Clinton’s spokesman, Angel Ureña, said that the former POTUS took “four trips” on Epstein’s plane between 2002 and 2003. Later, flight records published by Gawker in 2015 suggested that Bill Clinton took at least a dozen separate flights on Jeffrey Epstein’s plane.
Furthermore, Epstein visited former US President Bill Clinton at the White House at least 17 times between 1993 and 1995, visitor logs cited by the Daily Mail in December 2021 revealed.
Photos previously published by the Daily Mail showed Clinton being given a massage during his trip to Africa by Chauntae Davies, a flight attendant who claims she was raped by Jeffrey Epstein.
In this Aug. 27, 2019, photo, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who says she was trafficked by sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, holds a news conference outside a Manhattan court where sexual assault claimants invited by a judge addressed a hearing following Epstein's jailhouse death in New York
© AP Photo / Bebeto Matthews
There have been multiple reports that Clinton visited Epstein's private island in the Caribbean. Virginia Giuffre, the alleged Epstein victim who has since filed a civil lawsuit against Prince Andrew for sexual abuse, said in a 2011 deposition that Clinton visited Little St James. He had ostensibly arrived with “two young girls” from New York.
“I remember asking Jeffrey what's Bill Clinton doing here kind of thing, and he laughed it off and said 'well he owes me a favour,'” she was cited as saying at the time.
Clinton's spokesmen have vehemently denied the allegations. In July 2019 his office said in a statement, after Epstein’s death in jail, that the ex-POTUS “knows nothing about the terrible crimes” that Epstein had been accused of, and that Bill Clinton had not spoken to the tycoon in more than a decade.