What we know about recent claims linking Bill Clinton and Jeffrey Epstein

With former President Bill Clinton slated to speak on the second night of the Democratic National Convention, some Americans were incredulous. 

“Anyone wanna explain to me how Bill Clinton who was photographed with the young women raped on pedophile island and on a flight log 26 times is the honored guest speaker at the 2020 DNC? No really PLEASE do explain,” one Facebook post says. 

It was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) 

A spokesperson for Clinton did not immediately respond to our questions about the Facebook post. 

Jeffrey Epstein, the late financier and convicted sex offender, had ties to Clinton and other high-profile public figures, such as President Donald Trump. Clinton has denied he had a close relationship with Epstein, and after Epstein was newly accused in 2019 of sexually abusing children for more than a decade, a spokesman for the former president tweeted this statement: 

“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. In 2002 and 2003, President Clinton took a total of four trips on Jeffrey Epstein’s airplane: one to Europe, one to Asia, and two to Africa, which included stops in connection with the work of the Clinton Foundation.”

The statement said Clinton had never been to Little St. James Island, Epstein’s private island. 

In September 2002, Clinton took Epstein’s private jet to Africa, a trip Clinton had organized to discuss economic development there and the fight against HIV and AIDS, the New York Times reported. 

Chauntae Davies, the woman who appears in the photo with Clinton, has said she was also on the flight. She worked for Epstein as a masseuse and she has accused Epstein of raping her. 

The photo in the Facebook post was published by the Sun in January: “Clinton was pictured with his arm around Epstein’s private masseuse Chauntae Davies,” the caption says.  

The Sun story says that Davies “categorically denied that any improper behavior occurred around Clinton and that he was a ‘complete gentleman’ the entire time.” 

Clinton has said he “took a total of four trips,” but flight records published by Gawker in 2015 suggest he took more than a dozen flights, the news outlet then reported. A year later, Fox News reported that flight logs showed he took at least 26 trips. 

The New York Times has explored this discrepancy, writing that it’s unclear how many individual flights were involved in each of the four trips Clinton has claimed and whether that could make up the difference. In recently unsealed court documents, a woman who accused Epstein of sex trafficking has also said that she once saw Clinton on Epstein’s island with two “young girls” from New York. She didn’t implicate him in any wrongdoing, according to the Daily Beast.

Epstein was found dead on Aug. 10, 2019, in a New York jail cell, where he was being held on sexual abuse and child trafficking charges. The New York City medical examiner’s office concluded that Epstein hanged himself.