The Justice Department’s newest release of the Epstein recordsdata gives contemporary insights into how former President Bill Clinton’s employees communicated with Jeffrey Epstein and his longtime affiliate Ghislaine Maxwell, together with sometimes-lewd e-mail exchanges.
The doc dump comes simply days earlier than an anticipated House contempt vote in opposition to the Clintons after they rebuffed a subpoena to testify in a bipartisan probe into Epstein.
The Republican-led House is predicted to vote this week to carry each Bill and Hillary Clinton in contempt of Congress for failing to testify. House Oversight Republicans and even some Democrats voted in committee final month to carry the former president and secretary of state in contempt.
Friday’s launch of the Epstein recordsdata – greater than 3 million documents – follows a smaller, earlier batch in December that exposed never-before-seen photos of Bill Clinton and Epstein collectively and a shirtless Clinton in a sizzling tub with somebody a DOJ official described as a “victim” of Epstein’s sexual abuse.
The newest recordsdata embody frequent communications between Maxwell — who’s at the moment in jail for intercourse trafficking — and Clinton staffers between 2001 and 2004. It was throughout this era that Bill Clinton travelled along with his staffers on Epstein’s non-public airplane at least 16 times according to a NCS analysis.
Also amongst the newly launched recordsdata is a list of sexual abuse accusations in opposition to President Donald Trump from unverified ideas that the Justice Department compiled final summer time. That record additionally references allegations in opposition to Bill Clinton.
Both males have denied any wrongdoing associated to Epstein. Asked for touch upon the allegations in opposition to Trump in the documents, the White House referred to a Justice Department assertion that “this production may include fake or falsely submitted images, documents or videos.”
A spokesperson for Clinton has repeatedly mentioned the former president minimize ties with Epstein earlier than the disgraced financier was charged with soliciting prostitution in 2006 and didn’t know about his crimes. Clinton has additionally denied ever having visited Epstein’s island.
Clinton and Trump are amongst quite a few high-profile names included in the Epstein recordsdata launched by the Justice Department. After Trump’s DOJ balked at releasing the recordsdata, Congress handed a regulation final 12 months mandating their disclosure. Epstein died by suicide in 2019 whereas in jail awaiting trial on federal intercourse trafficking costs.
The names of the Clinton staffers in the emails are sometimes redacted – displaying solely “WJC” in the e-mail recipient or sender line, which seems to seek advice from William J. Clinton’s workplace post-presidency.
Clinton spokesman Angel Ureña instructed NCS that Bill Clinton didn’t ship any of the emails in the Epstein recordsdata.
“I can’t confirm whose it was, I can only tell you whose it wasn’t: Bill Clinton’s,” Ureña mentioned. “I’d say he has never emailed but in truth he has done so twice in his life, both as President. Once to former astronaut and Senator John Glenn while he was orbiting the Earth aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery, and another to the US troops serving in the Adriatic.”
Ureña additionally mentioned Clinton “neither had nor shared a device or account or address with anyone.”
Much of the communications between Maxwell and Clinton’s employees reviewed by NCS pertain to journey and eating logistics, and generally last-minute invitations to the former president himself. It’s unclear whether or not the communications had been associated to the enterprise of the basis or private dealings of Clinton or his employees.
In one email from April 2003, Maxwell wrote to a redacted Clinton workplace mail handle: “Glad you are coming to the dinner – JE says do you think CLinton would like to come – let me know.”
In another email from December 2001, a Clinton staffer requested Maxwell for Prince Andrew’s telephone quantity to coordinate a golf outing throughout a visit by Bill Clinton to Scotland. Maxwell replied, “Just spoke to Andrew. He is not currently in Scotland but is going to m. He says if I give him a no. he will ring Clinton. Doug, do you want him to call you ?”
It’s unclear who “Doug” refers to however a high Clinton adviser at the time was Doug Band. NCS has reached out to Band for remark.
Maxwell was generally flirtatious in her emails to redacted Clinton workplace e-mail addresses. In one exchange, Maxwell wrote to a Clinton staffer that she instructed a tabloid what “supper stud you are and how I have a crush on you and how you are hung like a horse and- well you get the picture. Hope you don’t mind!”
In one other 2002 exchange, an individual whose identify is redacted wrote to Maxwell from a Clinton e-mail handle: “Went home with someone I have before, a 40 year old blonde big boobby widow if you can believe that. I really need to stop drinking.”
There’s no proof in the recordsdata that Maxwell personally emailed the former president and vice versa. In one email the place the sender identify is unredacted, Band mentioned that he and Clinton shared a Blackberry account.
Nearly a decade later, after Maxwell was publicly accused of recruiting and sexually abusing ladies with Epstein in 2009, she was nonetheless welcome in Clinton circles.
As NCS’s KFile previously reported, Maxwell was a visitor at the prestigious Clinton Global Initiative convention in September 2013. Maxwell was honored for her now-defunct TerraMar Project, an ocean conservation non-profit she based in 2012 that did extra to revive her status than the ocean flooring.
At the identical time that the Justice Department and Epstein’s estate have launched documents displaying Clinton’s interactions with Epstein, Republicans in the House have clashed with the Clintons’ camp for months over testifying as a part of their probe.
While the panel waived in-person appearances for seven others who had been subpoenaed as a part of its ongoing investigation, House Oversight Chair James Comer insisted that the Clintons seem in individual for closed-door interviews.
The Republican repeatedly argued that the former president had particular info related to the investigation as a result of Epstein visited the White House and Bill Clinton flew on his non-public airplane.
Attorneys representing the Clintons repeatedly asserted in letters that they had been being unfairly singled out and known as the panel’s subpoenas for his or her testimony “invalid and legally unenforceable.”
The Clintons’ counsel sought a last-minute off-ramp and supplied to make the former president accessible for an interview with Comer, Rep. Robert Garcia, the high Democrat on the panel and a few employees in New York “on areas within the scope” of the panel’s Epstein probe.
Comer rejected the offer, nonetheless, and asserted that the Clintons had been making an attempt to get particular remedy. When negotiations fell aside, neither Clinton appeared for his or her scheduled in-person depositions.
When the committee moved to carry the Clintons in contempt, it wasn’t simply Republicans who backed it: Nearly half of the Democrats on the committee additionally voted to advance the contempt to the House flooring, arguing that their votes had been meant to guard the energy of a congressional subpoena.
The committee vote rankled high Democrats, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who argued that the Clintons had been nonetheless negotiating with Congress and advised no proceedings ought to transfer ahead in opposition to the Clintons till after the Justice Department has launched all of the Epstein investigative recordsdata.
A profitable contempt vote by the GOP-controlled House could be symbolic — as a rebuke to the Clintons — but in addition may very well be used as a device to compel them to testify. It might have authorized penalties, too, as the matter could be referred to the Justice Department for potential prosecution if the House approves it.
There’s nonetheless the chance for a deal earlier than the House votes. Last week, Comer advised to reporters “there is an opportunity” for the two sides to achieve an settlement.