'Clinton likes them young:’ Ex-president named in 10 of the new Epstein court documents

Former President Bill Clinton, or organizations connected to him and his family, were mentioned in at least ten of the 40 documents released late Wednesday night related to a civil case against Jeffrey Epstein’s associate Ghislaine Maxwell.

The newly public court documents come from a defamation suit against Ghislaine Maxwell by one of Epstein’s victims. Before today, approximately 175 names of Epstein associates, victims, former Epstein staff members, and of those investigating Epstein were sealed in the lawsuit.

Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s victims, sued Maxwell in 2015, accusing the Epstein associate of defamation when Maxwell called her a liar over her claims about alleged sexual abuse by Maxwell and Epstein. The two associates would later be charged criminally. Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison for conspiring with Epstein to sexually abuse minors.

According to the new trove of documents, one of Epstein’s accusers named Johanna Sjoberg, was asked about the relationship between Jeffrey Epstein and the former President during her deposition with lawyers representing Giuffre and Maxwell.

"Do you know if Bill Clinton was a friend of Jeffrey Epstein?” Sigfrid McCawley—the lawyer representing Giuffre—asked Sjoberg.

“I knew he had dealings with Bill Clinton. I did not know they were friends until I read the Vanity Fair article about them going to Africa together,” Sjoberg answered.

"Did Jeffrey ever talk to you about Bill Clinton?” McCawley followed up.

“He said one time that Clinton likes them young, referring to girls,” Sjoberg testified.

You can read Sjoberg’s deposition below:

The former President has strenuously denied any allegations that he knew about Jeffrey Epstein's crimes. “President Clinton 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,” Angel Ureña, the spokesman for President Clinton, said in a July 2019 statement after Epstein was charged with sex trafficking in New York.

Ureña referred Just the News to this original 2019 statement in response to new information contained in the court documents.

The former President has not been accused of any wrongdoing related to the charges against Jeffrey Epstein, but Sjoberg’s testimony about an alleged conversation with Epstein will likely raise further questions about the former President’s relationship with the disgraced financier.

The public reporting on Clinton’s relationship with Epstein is one of the factors that led the judge to unseal the former President’s name. In an order reviewing the names to be released, Federal Judge Loretta Preska wrote that all related “material should be unsealed in full” regarding J. DOE 036 because, among other reasons, the individual has been reported in the media as an Epstein associate and his name was mentioned at the criminal trial of Maxwell.

You can read that order below:

Public reporting has documented President Clinton’s connections with Epstein. The New York Post published photos of a 1993 visit by Epstein and Maxwell to the White House. President Clinton also visited Epstein’s apartment in New York at least once, around 2002, according to the New York Times. Reports also indicate that President Clinton traveled on Epstein’s private plane numerous times—Clinton’s staff claimed four times while Fox News found at least 26 separate trips, according to flight records.

A report from ABC News before the document release revealed that President Clinton was J. Doe 36, one of the names sealed and set to be released. This has now been confirmed by the public documents.

Jeffrey Epstein was charged in 2019 with sex trafficking of minors and conspiracy to commit the same. The federal indictment alleged that between 2002 and 2005, Epstein “sexually exploited and abused dozens of underage girls by enticing them to engage in sex acts with him in exchange for money.” Since then, his association with several prominent private citizens and public officials has raised questions.

Last month, the Wall Street Journal listed several individuals associated with Epstein in its own months-long investigation into Jeffrey Epstein and his associates based on emails and schedules that it obtained. Among some of the most prominent individuals revealed to have met and interacted with Epstein include Ehud Barak, former Prime Minister of Israel; William Burns, the current CIA director; Sergei Brin, a Google co-founder; Bill Gates, the Microsoft founder; and former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers.

William Burns, the current CIA director, met with Epstein multiple times in 2014 when he was the Deputy Secretary of State during the Obama Administration. They met one time in Washington and a subsequent time at Epstein’s New York townhouse. The CIA spokeswoman, Tammy Kupperman Thorp, told the Journal that Burns met with Epstein as he prepared to enter the private sector.

“The director did not know anything about him, other than that he was introduced as an expert in the financial services sector and offered general advice on transition to the private sector,” she told the Journal. “They had no relationship.”

Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates scheduled several meetings at Epstein’s New York townhouse, according to the Journal investigation. Gates was also photographed with models that Epstein had introduced him to, according to documentation obtained by the paper.

“Epstein tried, unsuccessfully, to connect himself to Mr. Gates by any means possible, including spontaneously bringing in people for photos with Bill, whom Bill did not know or interact with further,” a Gates spokeswoman told the Journal. “Mr. Gates only ever met with Epstein for philanthropic purposes, which he regrets.” 

The Journal also reported that in 2013 Epstein was introduced to a Russian woman with whom Gates was having an affair. Afterwards, Epstein paid for her to attend a software-coding school. When Gates ultimately refused to participate in a charitable endeavor organized by Epstein, the financier asked Gates to reimburse him for the costs. The Journal reported that those who viewed the message believed it implied Epstein was willing to reveal the affair if Gates did not maintain his association with Epstein.

Before Epstein could go to trial, he was found dead in his cell at the Manhattan Correctional Center in New York. The death was ruled a suicide but doubt swirled around the unusual circumstances. The Justice Department later confirmed the cause of death as suicide in an inspector general report last year, after a years-long investigation.

However, the DOJ inspector general found that jail staff “engaged in significant misconduct” in the circumstances surrounding Epstein's death, but it did not “uncover evidence contradicting the FBI’s determination regarding the absence of criminality in connection with how Epstein died,” the report reads.