Bill Clinton, the 42nd president of the United States, developed a social and professional relationship with financier and child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein that began in the early 1990s and continued into the early 2000s. During Clinton's presidency, Epstein made at least 17 visits to the White House and maintained ties with Clinton's associates. After leaving office, Clinton traveled on Epstein's private jet, on several occasions, for charitable trips, with his use of the plane for an African humanitarian trip in September 2002 also being credited as greatly strengthening Epstein's previously low-level amount of media publicity. Epstein's interactions with Clinton can be traced to the early 1990s and concluded in 2003.
Following Epstein's 2019 arrest for sex trafficking of minors in the early 2000s, and his death in prison, the relationship has come under further scrutiny, alongside Epstein's former friendship with the 45th and 47th U.S. president Donald Trump. Clinton has denied any knowledge of Epstein's criminal activities, and had distanced himself from the disgraced financier, in the years before Epstein's 2019 arrest and death. In 2025, Epstein's now-convicted accomplice and former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell claimed Clinton was a friend of hers, not Epstein's, and denied that Clinton was involved in any of Epstein's crimes.
Epstein victims, including Virginia Giuffre, did not accuse Clinton of sexual misconduct or abuse in relation to his former ties to Epstein. However, the Epstein-related court files that were unsealed in January 2024 included several references to Clinton. In November 2025, the relationship between Clinton and Epstein would be subjected to a federal investigation. The same month, emails from 2011 and 2015 were made public, which revealed Epstein personally denying Clinton visited his private island. In January 2026, it was also revealed that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had, in fact, previously investigated allegations against Clinton, which were connected to Epstein.
Early ties (1990s)
Epstein's interactions with Clinton can be traced to the early 1990s. After donating $1,000 to Bill Clinton's presidential election campaign, in 1991, Epstein donated $10,000 to the White House Historical Association, in 1993, and accompanied by Maxwell, he attended a donors' reception hosted by President Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton. Around the same period, visitor logs indicate Epstein paid several visits to the White House to meet with Mark Middleton, a Clinton aide and assistant to the White House chief of staff, in 1993–1995. Middleton, a friend of Clinton's from Arkansas, was, later, identified as having facilitated Epstein's White House access, in at least three instances.
While Clinton was president, Epstein visited the White House, at least 17 times, between 1993 and 1995. By 1995, Epstein was circulating in Clinton's social orbit: that year, he and Maxwell attended a small fundraising dinner at the Palm Beach home of billionaire Ron Perelman, which Clinton also attended. In April 1995, businesswoman Lynn Forester (later Lynn Forester de Rothschild), a Clinton supporter, wrote a personal letter to the president mentioning that she had used her "fifteen seconds of access" to discuss "Jeffrey Epstein and currency stabilization" with him, suggesting Clinton was acquainted with Epstein's financial acumen. Clinton's later schedules and archives confirm that Epstein and Maxwell were received, as part of at least one White House donor event in 1993, though the exact nature of their conversations with Clinton remains unclear.
Post-presidency relationship (2001–2003) Clinton left office in January 2001 and soon embarked on humanitarian and philanthropic initiatives, through the Clinton Foundation. During this post-presidential period, his association with Epstein continued, in the context of charity travel and social meetings. Epstein was an active supporter of the Clinton Foundation, even lending his Boeing 727 private jet for Clinton's international trips.
In 2002 and 2003, Clinton took multiple flights on Epstein's plane, commonly known by the nickname "Lolita Express,”as part of foundation-related tours to promote global health and economic development. Flight log records later indicated Clinton's name, on at least 17 legs of Epstein's flights, in that timeframe. On one high-profile trip in 2002, Clinton flew aboard Epstein's jet to Africa, along with actors Kevin Spacey and Chris Tucker, to visit HIV/AIDS project sites. Clinton's spokesman would, later, state that these comprised four distinct trips on Epstein's aircraft – one to Europe, one to Asia, and two to Africa – and that Clinton was accompanied by staff, foundation supporters, and Secret Service agents on all legs of those journeys.
However, Clinton using Epstein's plane for the September 2002 African trip, and Clinton, Kevin Spacey and Chris Tucker all being passengers on Epstein's plane during the trip, had also been previously discussed prior to the revelations of Epstein's controversies. An article in the October 28, 2002 issue of New York Magazine noted that Doug Band was the one pitched the idea to Epstein that Clinton use his plane for the trip, which in turn strengthened Epstein's relationship with Clinton and also got Epstein, who was at the time less known in the media and hardly ever mentioned in gossip columns, greater publicity.
Around the same time period, Clinton also visited Epstein's New York apartment and office in 2002, each time with his aide and security detail present. Clinton and Epstein appeared to be on friendly terms; a photo from 2002 shows them together, during a stop in Brunei, and in an interview that year, Clinton praised Epstein as a "highly successful financier" and "a committed philanthropist". Epstein's New York residence, according to one visitor, contained a signed photograph of Clinton. Epstein possessed an oil painting of Clinton in a blue dress and heels, Parsing Bill, made by a student at the New York Academy of Art in 2012. According to one of his lawyers, Epstein was "part of the original group" that conceived the Clinton Global Initiative, a flagship program of Clinton's philanthropic work.
This relationship extended to Maxwell, as well. She and Epstein were invited guests at events, early in the Clinton Foundation era, and Maxwell was noted as the likely social "glue" connecting Epstein to Clinton's world. However, in 2003, Clinton would skip a dinner party, which Epstein invited him to.
Diminished contact (post 2003) Clinton's direct contact with Epstein appears to have tapered off, by the mid-2000s. Epstein was arrested and convicted in Florida in 2008 on charges of procuring a minor for prostitution. There is no public evidence that Clinton and Epstein interacted, after about 2005 and 2006. In 2019, Clinton's office stated he had "not spoken to Epstein in well over a decade".
Epstein's close associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, continued to socialize within Clinton's family circle, for some years. Maxwell attended Chelsea Clinton's wedding in 2010, traveled on a private yacht with Chelsea in 2009, and even participated in Clinton Global Initiative conferences, as late as 2013. A Clinton spokesperson, later, said that Chelsea and Maxwell were not close friends, despite Maxwell's appearances at these events. In 2015, Chelsea became aware of the "horrific" allegations against Maxwell and hoped that Epstein's victims would find justice.
In a 2025 prison interview, when Todd Blanche asked "well, why did you get invited to that wedding?", Maxwell responded: "Because Ted [Waitt] and Clinton were very close." Billionaire Ted Waitt and Maxwell had been romantically linked in the 2000s. Waitt had been a “very close family friend” of Chelsea and her husband, Marc Mezvinsky, and introduced the couple to Maxwell, according to reporting by Politico. Maxwell also claimed that Epstein was not at the wedding. Hillary Clinton claims that Maxwell was a plus-one.
Allegations of island visit In a 2011 Daily Mail interview, Virginia Giuffre made allegations relating to Jeffrey Epstein. She also told the Mail that Bill Clinton and Al Gore had visited Epstein's island, and recalled dining with Clinton on the island, but did not accuse him of sexual wrongdoing. Giuffre said that Ghislaine Maxwell "went to pick up Bill in a huge black helicopter that Jeffrey had bought her", and said she “used to get frightened flying with her but Bill had the Secret Service with him and I remember him talking about what a good job she did". In a since-declassified 2011 email, Epstein wrote: "[T]hese stories are complete an[d] utter fantasy, I don’t know and have never met Al gore, Clinton was never on the island".
In the mid 2010s, Giuffre's claims relating to Clinton resurfaced in lawsuits. In a deposition, Ghislaine Maxwell called Giuffre's account "an obvious lie". Alan Dershowitz said that Giuffre's story was improbable, as the secret service would not allow Maxwell, "then a novice helicopter pilot", to fly a former president. Giuffre clarified that she had only heard Clinton arrived via helicopter from Maxwell and hadn't witnessed it herself. Giuffre's attorneys argued that Clinton was a "key" witness, due to his "close personal relationship" with Epstein and Maxwell, and in 2016, they formally requested to depose Clinton in the Giuffre v. Maxwell case. This request was denied by a federal judge.
A 2017 Freedom of Information Act request of secret service records found no evidence that Clinton had visited Little St. James. Epstein's flight logs also did not substantiate Clinton visiting the island. In 2019, a spokesperson for Clinton denied he ever visited the island. In a 2020 Vanity Fair article, former Clinton advisor Doug Band, said that Clinton had visited the island in January 2003. A Clinton spokesperson said that Clinton had never been to the island, and provided travel logs that did not include any mention of such a visit.
Renewed scrutiny On July 6, 2019, Epstein was arrested on federal charges of sex trafficking minors, prompting intense media focus on all his past connections. Clinton's office released a public statement soon after, detailing the extent of Clinton's interactions with Epstein in an effort to dispel rumors. The statement confirmed the 2002–03 plane trips (four trips totalling a number of flights, as previously described) and acknowledged a meeting in Epstein's New York apartment in 2002, but it asserted that Clinton "knows nothing about the terrible crimes" Epstein committed and had never visited Epstein's island, New Mexico ranch, or Palm Beach residence. It also stated that Clinton had not spoken to Epstein since approximately 2002–2003.
In late 2019, a federal appeals court unsealed thousands of pages of documents from prior Epstein lawsuits, including private flight logs. These logs corroborated that Epstein's pilots recorded Clinton as a passenger on numerous flights between 2001 and 2003, often related to Clinton Foundation work or paid speaking tours. In the years following Epstein's 2019 death, scrutiny of Clinton's ties has continued, including in official inquiries. In 2023–2024, Republicans in Congress signaled interest in investigating Epstein's connections to U.S. officials. Finally, in 2025, the House Oversight Committee (led by Representative James Comer) issued subpoenas for testimony from Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton regarding Epstein. Comer's letter alleged that the Clinton family "had a close relationship" with Epstein and Maxwell, highlighting Clinton's admitted plane trips on Epstein's jet and claiming that Clinton was photographed receiving a massage from one of Epstein's victims during one trip; the victim herself stated that the impromptu massage was innocent and that Clinton was a "perfect gentleman" during the trip.