Even Democrats don’t care if Bill Clinton is burnt by Epstein

The release of the Epstein files was a day many in the White House had dreaded. So much so that President Trump’s team spent much of the year trying to suppress their release. Yet on Friday afternoon White House aides took to social media to share them. Why? They had managed to find an upside: Bill Clinton.

For all the talk that it would be Donald Trump who fared worst in the files, it was the 42nd president who found himself in the firing line.

Earlier in the day, Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney-general, had said only several hundred thousand documents would be released due to the need to protect “every single victim”. The rest will follow over the coming weeks. Of the files released, many heavily redacted, there were notably few references to Trump, who knew Epstein from the social scene in the Nineties.

The blushes of Clinton, on the other hand, were not spared: a series of photos included Clinton sitting in an aircraft with a redacted woman on his lap; schmoozing with Michael Jackson and Mick Jagger; and posing with Epstein in “his and his” shirts. There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by Jagger, nor have there been any accusations against him.

The most eye-catching photo, however, is the former president in a swimming pool with a woman whose face is redacted.

Ghislaine Maxwell swims with Clinton DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE/REUTERS

Team Clinton quickly called foul play. Allies believe the Democrat is being set up by the White House as a fall guy for Trump. A spokesman for Clinton said the release was targeted and was “about shielding themselves from what comes next, or from what they’ll try and hide forever”. In a statement, Angel Ureña, deputy chief of staff for Clinton, said: “They can release as many grainy 20-plus-year-old photos as they want, but this isn’t about Bill Clinton … There are two types of people here. The first group knew nothing and cut Epstein off before his crimes came to light. The second group continued relationships with him after. We’re in the first. No amount of stalling by people in the second group will change that.”

• More Epstein files photos have been released

Both presidents are known to have had a friendship with Epstein in the past. Both were drawn into the sex offender’s orbit as he focused on embedding himself with the rich and powerful. Both have said they have come to regret that association. Clinton has previously denied wrongdoing and said he knew “nothing about the terrible crimes” Epstein committed and had never visited Epstein’s island or homes in New Mexico and Palm Beach.

But while Trump is not out of the woods — more information could emerge and he faces a backlash from parts of his base over a lack of transparency — he has at least temporarily managed to make it somebody else’s problem. “Totally unsurprising,” a senior Maga figure said on Friday night. “The move to make it all about Bill … As if they were going to do something to embarrass the president.”

On cable networks, Trump loyalists quickly snapped into action, declaring the files should be renamed “the Clinton files”. For many in Maga, Clinton is the ideal bogeyman: they view him as a prime example of the New York elite sleaze they rail against, while citing the Monica Lewinsky affair as evidence he can’t be trusted.

Trump himself changes his tune. He recently said: “I’ve always liked Bill Clinton, he used to be a friend of mine — he came to my wedding.”

Clinton’s friendship with Epstein is not a new discovery. The pair have been linked since the early Nineties, having run in the same social circles. Contact is thought to have begun when Epstein donated to Clinton’s presidential election campaign in 1991 and later the White House Historical Association. Epstein then attended a donors’ reception hosted by Clinton and the first lady, Hillary Clinton, where he was accompanied by Ghislaine Maxwell. During the Clinton presidency, Epstein visited the White House on several occasions.

When Clinton left office, the pair helped with his foundation and Clinton flew on Epstein’s plane to Europe, Asia and Africa in the early 2000s. The former president has always denied any wrongdoing and said those trips included stops for work on his foundation.

The friendship between Clinton and Epstein is thought to have ended in the early Noughties, but Maxwell remained in the Clintons’ orbit, even attending their daughter Chelsea’s wedding in 2010. In 2020 Doug Band, a former Clinton adviser, said in an interview with Vanity Fair that he got “bad vibes” from Epstein during a 2002 trip to Africa on the financier’s private plane. He claimed he had advised Clinton to sever ties but his advice fell on deaf ears and Clinton went on to associate with Epstein for several more years.

Even after Clinton stopped speaking to Epstein, the latter worried about the relationship causing problems. When Hillary Clinton announced a tilt for the White House in 2007 Epstein warned Maxwell that Clinton’s opponents would “attack her ‘friends’ in any way they can” and that her campaign could bring unwanted scrutiny to Maxwell. Later, Epstein — according to his brother Mark — boasted he had information about Trump and Hillary Clinton that could derail the 2016 election if it were made public.

• Jeffrey Epstein’s butler: I was trembling before meeting Bill Clinton

These days the Clintons, who live in New York, are away from frontline politics. Clinton, 79, largely works on private projects, focusing on his foundation and making few public appearances. He was spotted over the summer in the Hamptons with Chelsea. Meanwhile, Hillary, 78, who prides herself on being a feminist, is more active. She visited the UK this month in her role as chancellor of Queen’s University Belfast. She has not said anything publicly about her husband’s inclusion in the Epstein files.

Neither are seen as particular live forces in the Democratic Party or Washington these days. But that could change — against their will. For months now, James Comer, the Republican chair of the oversight committee investigating the files, has been trying to get both Clintons to testify to Congress on Epstein. Comer has threatened to begin contempt of Congress proceedings against them if they fail to appear in person for depositions scheduled for January 13 and 14 next year.

• Michael Jackson, Mick Jagger, Trump and more in Epstein files

It’s part of a continuing tit-for-tat between the Republicans and Democrats on the committee. When the Democrats seek to embarrass Trump over his Epstein associations, the Republicans on the committee tend to try to hurt the Democrats and shift the focus. After Democrat pressure led to Comer subpoenaing the justice department for its files, he issued subpoenas to the Clintons (along with eight former top law enforcement officials). They have repeatedly offered to provide a sworn statement to the committee.

But while the Republicans may be enjoying Bill Clinton’s discomfort, there are limits to how much the Democratic Party cares about the airing of their former leader’s dirty laundry.

The Republicans like to remind their opponents that the Biden administration did not release the files but this is a new era and today’s Democrats are quite happy to point out they are different from what came before.

Neither of the Clintons are considered key players in the debate about where the party goes next. Instead, there was already a feeling that the old guard was on the way out — the families that have dominated the party for so long have been moving aside and a new generation is taking over.

Democrats such as Ro Khanna, who has played a key role in pushing for the release, are part of a new age of a party less fussed about protecting those who came before. The 2028 contenders generally have little loyalty to the Clintons and the old establishment. Where the Biden-era Democrats may have felt more protective of them, many in the party actively want to break with the past.

Mick Jagger, Bill Clinton and an unknown person. There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by Jagger, nor have there been any accusations against him DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

That’s a problem for both Clinton and Trump. It means the Democrats will keep working with rebel Republicans to force the administration to release more files.

Clinton is likely to find few of his own side willing to spend their political capital defending him. So the Democrats will keep pushing, no matter the cost to some of their own along the way.