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Ghislaine Maxwell brought Bill Clinton to Jeffrey Epstein: report
Former President Bill Clinton’s connection to since-convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein was established through British heiress and longtime Epstein pal Ghislaine Maxwell, who also became a friend of former first daughter Chelsea, according to a new report Sunday.
Clinton’s family grew close with Maxwell after Clinton left office in early 2001, Politico reported.
“The Clintons were relatively intimate with her,” a friend of Maxwell’s told the Web site. A person familiar with the relationship also described Maxwell as “the contact between Epstein and Clinton.”
“She ended up being close to the family because she and Chelsea ended up becoming close,” the source added.
Maxwell, the daughter of late publishing tycoon Robert Maxwell, vacationed on a yacht with Chelsea in 2009 and attended her wedding to Marc Mezvinsky the following year, Politico said.
Maxwell was also associated with the Clinton Global Initiative as recently as 2013, when it promoted a “commitment to action” by a group that included Maxwell’s environmental nonprofit, the TerrarMar Project, which she shuttered in the wake of Epstein’s arrest earlier this month.
All of those dates followed Epstein’s 2008 sweetheart-deal of a conviction in Florida on two prostitution-related charges, one of which involved a minor. The multimillionaire financier was busted July 6 on child sex-trafficking charges and last week was ordered held without bail pending trial. He has pleaded not guilty.
In 2015, an Epstein accuser, Virginia Giuffre, sued Maxwell for denying her claim that Maxwell recruited her to be sexually abused by Epstein when Giuffre was 15. Maxwell and Guiffre settled that suit for undisclosed terms on the eve of trial last year.
A source told Politico that although Maxwell was “incredibly close” to Chelsea, “She had her own relationship with Bill Clinton and was very close to him.”
Politico didn’t pinpoint the origin of Bill Clinton’s relationship with Epstein, but Fox News has reported that Clinton took at least 26 trips on Epstein’s Boeing 727 between 2001 and 2003.
A friend of Maxwell’s also told Politico about attending a dinner party around 2005 at her Upper East Side apartment and being surprised to see that where Doug Band, then a top advisor to Bill Clinton and the Clinton Foundation, was among the eight to 10 guests.
A charity formerly run by Epstein, The C.O.U.Q. Foundation, listed a $25,000 donation to the Clinton Foundation on its 2006 IRS filing, the Daily Beast has reported.
Politico quoted Bill Clinton’s spokesman, Angel Urena, as saying that Epstein visited Clinton at his Harlem office once in 2002, and that Clinton once briefly visited Epstein’s apartment. It’s unclear what apartment that would be. Epstein owns an Upper East Side townhouse that federal prosecutors have said is worth $77 million.
Urena also said that “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,” according to Politico.
Chelsea Clinton’s chief of staff, Bari Lurie, told Politico, “It wasn’t until 2015 that Chelsea and Marc became aware of the horrific allegations against Ghislaine Maxwell and hope that all the victims find justice.”
“Chelsea and Marc were friendly with her because of her relationship with a dear friend of theirs. When that relationship ended, Chelsea and Marc’s friendship with her ended as well,” Lurie added.
Politico suggested the “good friend” was Ted Waitt, who made a fortune founding the since-defunct Gateway computer company and with whom Maxwell has been romantically linked.
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