In what is expected to be the last document dump related to legal cases against the late Jeffrey Epstein, former President Bill Clinton's name appears more than 50 times, according to new reporting from ABC News.
In all, hundreds of records are set to be made public in the coming days as the result of a ruling from U.S. District Court Judge Loretta Preska that there are no longer any legal reasons to keep the names of individuals mentioned in Epstein court records masked as John/Jane Does. The process of unsealing the records was ordered to begin after the first of the new year.
The records are years old at this point, dating back to a 2015 civil case, but the information — specifically the identities of people who worked, traveled, or associated with Epstein — has been sought for years.
According to ABC News, this tranche of court documents includes "the names of additional Epstein associates, alleged perpetrators, alleged co-conspirators, alleged victims, witnesses and former Epstein employees."
Among those names: Bill Clinton, America's 42nd president — or "Doe 36" as he was identified in the filings.
"Former President Clinton, who ABC News has learned is identified as 'Doe 36,' is mentioned in more than fifty of the redacted filings, according to court records," reported ABC News. "Several of those sealed or redacted entries are focused on an effort by Giuffre's lawyers in mid-2016...to subpoena the two-term Democratic president for deposition testimony about his relationship with Epstein."
The former president's legal team — along with attorneys representing the other "Does" — were allowed by Judge Preska to view the court records mentioning them before the ruling to ultimately release them and "afforded an opportunity to argue for keeping the records sealed," ABC News explained of the process. "Clinton's legal team, after reviewing the excerpts, did not lodge any objections to the publication of the documents."
As ABC News recounted of Clinton's globe-trotting relationship — one he has since tried to minimize — with Epstein:
Clinton's association with Epstein was first noted publicly in 2002, after reporters learned of the former president's journey that year on the mysterious multi-millionaire's jet for a humanitarian mission to multiple African nations. Clinton told New York magazine through a spokesman at the time that "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."
"I especially appreciated his insights and generosity during the recent trip to Africa to work on democratization, empowering the poor, citizen service, and combating HIV/AIDS," the statement said.
Clinton's representatives have said the former president cut off contact with Epstein in 2005, before the financier came under investigation in Palm Beach, Florida, for allegedly luring underage girls to his seaside mansion for illicit, sexualized massages.
When Epstein first faced potential federal prosecution a few years later, one of the disgraced financier's lawyers wrote to prosecutors to tout Epstein's pedigree as "part of the original group that conceived of the Clinton Global Initiative," according to a 2007 letter attached to a court filing several years later.
Following Epstein's arrest for child sex trafficking in 2019, a spokesperson for Clinton, Angel Ureña, said in a statement that the former president "knows nothing" about Epstein's crimes. "He's not spoken to Epstein in well over a decade," the statement added, "and has never been to Little St. James Island, Epstein's ranch in New Mexico, or his residence in Florida."
Subsequent reporting after Epstein's death has revealed that Epstein and Maxwell attended a 1993 reception for donors to the non-profit White House Historical Association. The smiling pair are seen greeting the president at the White House in photos unearthed from the archives of the Clinton Presidential Library in Arkansas.
For now, all there's to do is wait for the documents to be released to see what, if anything new, is revealed about Clinton's relationship with Epstein along with any other individuals whose ties may be deeper than previously known.
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