Clinton Unloads On Trump’s Plot to ‘Scapegoat’ Him for Epstein
The former president has responded to Friday’s Epstein file dump, in which he features prominently.

Photo Illustration by Victoria Sunday/The Daily Beast/Getty Images
Former President Bill Clinton has responded to the latest release of files associated with the notorious sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein with a stern statement accusing the White House of using him as a scapegoat.
Clinton, who maintained a relationship with Epstein for years and who features prominently in the trove of images released by the Department of Justice on Friday, issued a statement via his press secretary that read, “The White House hasn’t been hiding these files for months only to dump them late on a Friday to protect Bill Clinton.”

Image from the Epstein Files released Dec. 19, 2025. Bill Clinton is pictured with a young woman.
Department of Justice
“This is about shielding themselves from what comes next, or from what they’ll try and hide forever. So they can release as many grainy 20-plus-year-old photos as they want, but this isn’t about Bill Clinton. Never has, never will be.”
The statement continued, “Even Susie Wiles said Donald Trump was wrong about Bill Clinton,” referring to Wiles’ assertion that Trump’s repeated claim that the Epstein files incriminate Clinton was incorrect.

Image from The Epstein Files released on Dec. 19, 2025.
Department of Justice
“There are two types of people here. The first group knew nothing and cut Epstein off before his crimes came to light,” the statement reads.
”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. Everyone, especially MAGA, expects answers, not scapegoats.”

Bill Clinton, pictured with Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein.
House Oversight Democrats
Trump’s absence from the files released on Friday is noteworthy, especially considering that Trump and Epstein were friends for much of the 1990s and 2000s and were photographed together many times.
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Instead, several photos featuring Clinton, as well as other public figures like Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, Mick Jagger, and Chris Tucker, could be found in a handful of visible images amid a sea of redacted ones.

Trump and Epstein were friends for much of the 1990s and 2000s.
Davidoff Studios Photography/Getty Images
A report from Fox News Digital said that while many of the redactions were made to protect victims’ identities, “the same redaction standards were applied to politically exposed individuals and government officials.”
Both Bill and Hillary Clinton have gone to great lengths to distance themselves from Epstein after maintaining a relationship with him during the 1990s and early 2000s, with Clinton reasserting in his Friday statement that he “cut Epstein off before his crimes came to light.”

A photo of Mick Jagger, Bill Clinton and an unidentified woman in the Epstein files.
Justice Department
While Clinton may have cut ties with Epstein by the end of the decade, Epstein’s accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, who is currently serving 20 years in a federal prison on sex trafficking and conspiracy charges, was in attendance at Chelsea Clinton’s 2010 wedding to Marc Mezvinsky. Epstein was convicted of procuring a child for prostitution in 2008.
Clinton has never been formally accused of any wrongdoing in connection with his relationship with Epstein, which included taking multiple trips on the financier’s private jet.

Ghislaine Maxwell attended Chelsea Clinton's 2010 wedding.
Handout/Getty
The Clintons were scheduled for depositions in front of the House Oversight Committee this week regarding their ties to Epstein, but their appearances have been rescheduled for January.

A photograph released by the Justice Department as part of its first drop of Epstein files under the law passed by Congress.
Justice Department
Trump, meanwhile, has not been called to testify regarding his own relationship with Epstein.
The president has faced increased scrutiny regarding his ties to Epstein in recent months, particularly as he dragged his feet on releasing the files.

No images of Trump were found in the most recent Epstein file dump.
Davidoff Studios Photography/Getty Images
Eventually, he agreed to sign the legislation when it became clear Congress would overwhelmingly pass a bill to force the DOJ to release them.
Despite eventually signing the bill, the damage was done, with a survey conducted earlier this month finding that 70 percent of Americans felt the Trump administration was trying to conceal details surrounding the case, including the identities of Epstein’s associates who may have been complicit in his crimes.
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