Former President Trump Makes Unsubstantiated Claim About Bill Clinton and Epstein Island

In a series of recent public statements, former President Donald Trump has claimed that Bill Clinton visited Jeffrey Epstein’s private Caribbean island “28 times,” an allegation that has no factual basis according to available evidence and flight records.

The claim emerged as Trump faced questions about his own past relationship with Epstein, the disgraced financier who died in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. At a press event in Scotland on July 28, Trump stated, “I never went to the island, and Bill Clinton went there, supposedly, 28 times.” He repeated the same claim days earlier at the White House when asked about potentially pardoning Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s former associate who is currently serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking.

Flight logs unsealed during legal proceedings show that Clinton did travel on Epstein’s aircraft multiple times. Records indicate the former president took 26 flights as part of six international trips between February 2002 and November 2003, after he had left office. These journeys included stops in various international locations including London, Hong Kong, Oslo, Beijing, and several African countries.

However, none of these flight logs document Clinton traveling to Little St. James, Epstein’s private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands, which prosecutors alleged served as a hub for the trafficking of young women and underage girls. The number “28” appears to be a distortion of the documented 26 flights Clinton took on Epstein’s planes, not visits to the island itself.

In a 2019 statement, Clinton’s office acknowledged his travel on Epstein’s aircraft but explicitly denied he ever visited the island, stating that the former president “has never been to Little St. James Island” and “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.”

There are conflicting claims regarding whether Clinton ever set foot on the island. Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s victims who died by suicide earlier this year, wrote in an unsealed unpublished memoir that she saw Clinton on the island. Additionally, Doug Band, a former Clinton aide, told Vanity Fair in December 2020 that Clinton visited the island once in January 2003. These accounts remain unverified by flight logs or other documentation.

It’s worth noting that Trump himself is documented to have flown on Epstein’s aircraft at least seven times during the 1990s, according to flight logs released during Maxwell’s trial. As with Clinton, these records do not show Trump visiting Epstein’s island.

The renewed focus on these connections comes as Maxwell has reportedly offered to testify about Epstein before Congress in exchange for immunity or clemency. Maxwell was convicted of helping Epstein recruit and groom underage girls for sexual abuse and is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence.

Epstein’s case continues to cast a long shadow over American politics and society. The financier was arrested in July 2019 on federal charges of sex trafficking minors between 2002 and 2005. The Justice Department’s indictment alleged that Epstein “sexually exploited and abused dozens of underage girls by enticing them to engage in sex acts with him in exchange for money.” He died in prison in August 2019, with the Justice Department concluding he committed suicide.

When asked for evidence supporting Trump’s claim about Clinton visiting the island 28 times, the White House did not provide any response or documentation to verify the allegation.