Latest / The Vault: The Epstein Files / Bill Clinton And The Transcript From His Epstein Related Interview With Congress (Part 10) (8/28/26)
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: What's up everyone and welcome to another episode of the
- 0:03Speaker 1: Epstein Chronicles. In this episode, we're picking up where we
- 0:06Speaker 1: left off with Bill Clinton and his transcript from his
- 0:10Speaker 1: trip to Congress. Question. It's also been reported that in 2011,
- 0:19Speaker 1: your advisor Doug Band instructed an aide to remove Ms.
- 0:22Speaker 1: Maxwell from all attendance-related lists for Clinton-related events. This was
- 0:27Speaker 1: reportedly in wake of Virginia Roberts' and the allegations that
- 0:30Speaker 1: she made, at the time, against many people, including Ms. Maxwell.
- 0:34Speaker 1: Do you have any memory or knowledge of Mr. Ben's
- 0:36Speaker 1: instruction that I just described? Answer, I don't. Question, okay,
- 0:41Speaker 1: thank you. That takes us through most of the known
- 0:43Speaker 1: timeline of your relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. There's just one
- 0:47Speaker 1: more topic that I would like to cover. That is
- 0:50Speaker 1: the Clinton Global Initiative. In 2007, Epstein's lawyer claimed that
- 0:54Speaker 1: he was part of the original group that conceived the
- 0:57Speaker 1: Clinton Global Initiative. Would you agree with that characterization? Answer, no. Question,
- 1:02Speaker 1: can you elaborate a little bit why you would not
- 1:04Speaker 1: agree with that? Answer, I would not agree with that
- 1:08Speaker 1: because the first time I ever discussed that, what would
- 1:10Speaker 1: become the Clinton Global Initiative was with Doug Band and
- 1:14Speaker 1: the rest of our small group on the way back
- 1:16Speaker 1: from Davos. And Doug said that we should have a
- 1:19Speaker 1: meeting with this guy in New York at the opening
- 1:21Speaker 1: of the UN. And we can make a lot of
- 1:23Speaker 1: money because you don't have to go to Davos anymore.
- 1:27Speaker 1: And you can meet all these people and they'll all
- 1:29Speaker 1: be here. And I said, I want to do it
- 1:31Speaker 1: for an entirely different reason. It's fine if we make money.
- 1:35Speaker 1: But the most important thing is that we can give
- 1:37Speaker 1: serious people a chance to go to meetings and actually
- 1:40Speaker 1: make commitments to make positive change. I'm tired of going
- 1:44Speaker 1: to meetings where everybody just bloviates and doesn't ever do
- 1:47Speaker 1: a damn thing. So if we can figure out how
- 1:49Speaker 1: to do that, I'm interested. And then we got a
- 1:52Speaker 1: team to operationalize it. It was Doug Band, Mary Morrison,
- 1:57Speaker 1: who worked for me in the inner office at the
- 1:58Speaker 1: White House, and a man named Ed Hughes, who was
- 2:01Speaker 1: a wonderful young guy who stayed with us the whole
- 2:04Speaker 1: 12 years. And they were working on how to stand
- 2:06Speaker 1: up and do the mechanics of this. And my job
- 2:09Speaker 1: was to try to get some people who would come
- 2:12Speaker 1: that people would want to hear and see and try
- 2:14Speaker 1: to make it exciting and make people actually want to
- 2:17Speaker 1: make commitments. And so I think it was at that
- 2:20Speaker 1: point that Ghislaine may have gotten involved. I don't know.
- 2:23Speaker 1: You can ask him about it. But I'm just telling
- 2:25Speaker 1: you how it began. It began with Doug said, let's
- 2:29Speaker 1: do this and make money. And me saying, let's do
- 2:32Speaker 1: this and make commitments. Question, I think the question, Mr. President,
- 2:36Speaker 1: which you've answered was, was Jeffrey Epstein involved in the initiation? Answer,
- 2:42Speaker 1: at that time, no, not at all. Question, okay. But
- 2:47Speaker 1: I do know what happened after, but I do not
- 2:49Speaker 1: know what happened after, says Clinton. Question, It's been publicly
- 2:53Speaker 1: reported that in 2006, Mr. Epstein made a $ 25, 000 donation
- 2:57Speaker 1: to the Clinton Foundation. Do you have any specific knowledge
- 3:01Speaker 1: or recollection of that donation? Answer, no. I saw it
- 3:04Speaker 1: was reported. I don't know. Question, thank you. With respect
- 3:08Speaker 1: to Ms. Maxwell, and you just touched on it very briefly,
- 3:11Speaker 1: she told DOJ last year that she was very central
- 3:14Speaker 1: to the startup of the Clinton Global Initiative. Would you
- 3:17Speaker 1: agree with that characterization? Answer, I would agree that she
- 3:21Speaker 1: worked hard. I now know I didn't at the time
- 3:25Speaker 1: because as I explained, I was working on a whole
- 3:27Speaker 1: nother part of this. Oh, sure you were. Had no
- 3:30Speaker 1: idea that Glenn Maxwell was involved, huh? People that have
- 3:33Speaker 1: given Clinton a pass here should reevaluate because he still
- 3:37Speaker 1: has some questions to answer. Question, if I could ask
- 3:42Speaker 1: you to limit your answer to your knowledge at the time. Answer,
- 3:46Speaker 1: at the time, I didn't know. Question, thank you. The
- 3:48Speaker 1: New York Times recently reported that in 2004, Ms. Maxwell...
- 3:52Speaker 1: arranged a $ 1 million payment to an events company called
- 3:55Speaker 1: Publicis Group, and that the payment may have had some
- 3:58Speaker 1: connection with the first Clinton Global Initiative conference in 2005.
- 4:01Speaker 1: The reporting suggests that Mr. Epstein may have been involved
- 4:06Speaker 1: with the payment, or somehow aware of the payment. Do
- 4:10Speaker 1: you have any specific memory or knowledge or recollection of
- 4:13Speaker 1: the $ 1 million payment that I just described? Clinton, no. Question,
- 4:17Speaker 1: it's also been reported that in September of 2013, At
- 4:21Speaker 1: a Clinton Global Initiative conference, Ms. Maxwell was recognized as
- 4:25Speaker 1: a commitment to Action Partner for her work on behalf
- 4:28Speaker 1: of the Terramar Project, which was an ocean conservation nonprofit
- 4:32Speaker 1: that she founded in 2012. Do you have any memory
- 4:35Speaker 1: or knowledge of that conference? Clinton, I do. Question, great.
- 4:39Speaker 1: Could you describe it a little bit, what you recall? Answer, yeah,
- 4:43Speaker 1: because this shows you how the CGI work, not for Ghislaine,
- 4:47Speaker 1: for everybody. First, she was still with Ted Wade. And
- 4:50Speaker 1: he was still heavily involved in ocean work. So that
- 4:53Speaker 1: was sort of an incentive. But she had organized this
- 4:56Speaker 1: group whose objective was to, in fact, take two massive
- 5:00Speaker 1: islands made of metal and junk out of the Atlantic.
- 5:03Speaker 1: And they were floating around. One of them had gotten
- 5:05Speaker 1: to the Caribbean. They were floating around in all this metal.
- 5:09Speaker 1: So that was what she was trying to do. It
- 5:11Speaker 1: was a good idea. And she was recognized for that.
- 5:15Speaker 1: The fact that she was recognized was not particularly remarkable.
- 5:18Speaker 1: Everybody who makes a commitment goes through a photo line
- 5:21Speaker 1: and gets recognized. Question, do you have any personal role
- 5:25Speaker 1: in Ms. Maxwell's recognition at that event or Bill Clinton? No.
- 5:29Speaker 1: I might have been in the room at the time
- 5:31Speaker 1: that she got it. No, they put the recognition in
- 5:34Speaker 1: the room. I remember this specifically because it was where
- 5:37Speaker 1: all the ocean freaks were. All the people that cared
- 5:40Speaker 1: about this, that wanted to be. So that's why they
- 5:43Speaker 1: wanted those things announced there. Question, by ocean freaks, you
- 5:46Speaker 1: mean people who are passionate about the ocean? Clinton, yeah. Question,
- 5:49Speaker 1: thank you. Clinton, I mean, people who were fascinated about
- 5:53Speaker 1: doing this, it was great, and so I didn't think
- 5:56Speaker 1: anything about it. Question, do you have any additional knowledge
- 6:00Speaker 1: or recollection related to Ms. Maxwell's role at the event? Answer, no. Question,
- 6:05Speaker 1: reportedly in February of 2014, you had dinner with Ms.
- 6:09Speaker 1: Maxwell and others in Los Angeles at a vegan restaurant
- 6:12Speaker 1: called Crossroads Kitchen. That dinner may have been organized by
- 6:16Speaker 1: your then-deputy chief staff, John Davidson, perhaps around 20 guests.
- 6:20Speaker 1: Do you have any recollection of the dinner I just described? Answer,
- 6:24Speaker 1: I had a lot of dinners like that in Los Angeles,
- 6:27Speaker 1: so I don't remember that specific one. But whenever I
- 6:30Speaker 1: went to Los Angeles, I attempted to have dinner someplace
- 6:32Speaker 1: in public with a lot of friends, just to keep
- 6:35Speaker 1: in touch with them, you know, keep going. Question, as
- 6:38Speaker 1: far as you recall, when was the last time you
- 6:40Speaker 1: had any form of communication with Ms. Maxwell? Clinton, it
- 6:44Speaker 1: must have been a decade ago. It may be even longer.
- 6:47Speaker 1: I don't know, but it was a long time ago. Question, Mr. President.
- 6:51Speaker 1: It's a pleasure to be here, and quickly, on a
- 6:53Speaker 1: lighter note, a point of personal privilege. My birthday is
- 6:57Speaker 1: November 5th, 1974, which shouldn't mean anything to you. But
- 7:01Speaker 1: what it means is that I turned 18 two days
- 7:04Speaker 1: after the election, and I couldn't vote, and I'm still
- 7:07Speaker 1: upset about that. So on behalf of my mom, I apologize.
- 7:11Speaker 1: She was a little slow. I mean, really? Speaker 31,
- 7:16Speaker 1: whoever you are, what a clown. Embarrassment-ass clown. Now, President Clinton,
- 7:23Speaker 1: as counsel noted at the beginning of the deposition, Donald
- 7:25Speaker 1: Trump posted on social media that he wanted Attorney General
- 7:29Speaker 1: Pam Bondi to investigate you and other prominent Democrats in
- 7:32Speaker 1: order to distract from his own close ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
- 7:36Speaker 1: The post was previously marked as Minority Exhibit B, which
- 7:39Speaker 1: you already have. President Trump's post refers to Jeffrey Epstein's
- 7:43Speaker 1: crimes against young girls and women as the Epstein hoax.
- 7:47Speaker 1: His post also completely ignores several other high-profile individuals, including
- 7:52Speaker 1: Republicans and allies of President Trump, who are known to
- 7:56Speaker 1: have relationships with Epstein. In fact, the Epstein files contain
- 8:00Speaker 1: numerous officials in the current and previous Trump administrations who
- 8:04Speaker 1: have connections to Jeffrey Epstein, including Howard Lutnick, RFK Jr.,
- 8:08Speaker 1: Steve Bannon, Tom Barrett, Kevin Warsh, and Mehmet Oz, to
- 8:12Speaker 1: name a few. President Clinton, to your knowledge, has the
- 8:15Speaker 1: Trump administration done anything at all to investigate these other
- 8:19Speaker 1: individuals with ties to Epstein? How would Bill Clinton know that?
- 8:24Speaker 1: This is a dog and pony show, like I've told
- 8:26Speaker 1: you from the fucking beginning. Well, I wouldn't be in
- 8:30Speaker 1: a position to know they. It's the truth, as I
- 8:32Speaker 1: said earlier. The only conversation that I've had with Trump
- 8:36Speaker 1: about this was early in 2000, and I was in
- 8:39Speaker 1: no information that he had anything wrong. I just want
- 8:42Speaker 1: it all out there. I want everybody to get it
- 8:44Speaker 1: all out there and let everybody see where we are. Question,
- 8:48Speaker 1: and you had any conversations with him since the early
- 8:51Speaker 1: 2000s about the subject matter? Answer, no. Question, and then
- 8:55Speaker 1: my last question is, Howard Lutnick recently went so far
- 8:58Speaker 1: as to lie about his close connection to Jeffrey Epstein,
- 9:01Speaker 1: but the truth came out with the release of the files.
- 9:04Speaker 1: President Clinton, is Howard Lutnick still employed as Secretary of
- 9:08Speaker 1: Commerce in the Trump administration to your knowledge? Answer, I
- 9:11Speaker 1: think he is. Question, and in your opinion, why has
- 9:14Speaker 1: Donald Trump ignored these other prominent figures who had close
- 9:18Speaker 1: ties to Epstein? Well, the same reason you ignored Bill
- 9:20Speaker 1: Richardson and George Mitchell and the rest of them. Clinton,
- 9:26Speaker 1: Lutnick runs a big company and has made a lot
- 9:28Speaker 1: of money and has supported him strongly. I don't think
- 9:31Speaker 1: he believes that he's done anything bad enough. I think
- 9:34Speaker 1: he thinks he took his family to the island and
- 9:37Speaker 1: he could have done anything wrong. That's what I think
- 9:39Speaker 1: he thinks, but I'm speculating. I'm doing what I have
- 9:42Speaker 1: no business doing because I really don't know. Question. Thank you, Mr. President,
- 9:48Speaker 1: for being here for your service. I'll be brief. I
- 9:52Speaker 1: think that the most pertinent question may have been asked today.
- 9:56Speaker 1: I want to talk about transparency. You and Secretary Clinton
- 9:59Speaker 1: were both very clear about your desire to testify publicly
- 10:02Speaker 1: before this committee. In fact, on February 6, 2026, you
- 10:06Speaker 1: posted on social media, I will not sit idly as
- 10:10Speaker 1: they use me as a prop in a closed-door kangaroo
- 10:12Speaker 1: court by a Republican party running scared. If they want answers,
- 10:16Speaker 1: let's stop the games and do this the right way.
- 10:19Speaker 1: in a public hearing where the American people can see
- 10:21Speaker 1: for themselves what this is really about. Well, we see, Mr. President,
- 10:25Speaker 1: and it doesn't look good for you. President Clinton, why
- 10:29Speaker 1: do you feel it's important for you to testify before
- 10:31Speaker 1: this committee in a public setting? Answer, because I think
- 10:35Speaker 1: that first, what happens with Jeffrey Epstein was horrible. What
- 10:38Speaker 1: he did and what Glenn Maxwell was convicted of was horrible.
- 10:42Speaker 1: We can't tolerate it in America and shouldn't. We ought
- 10:45Speaker 1: to keep doing as Hillary talked about yesterday. Try our
- 10:48Speaker 1: part to get rid of that kind of trafficking around
- 10:50Speaker 1: the world. Secondly, I was on the plane. It may
- 10:54Speaker 1: have been I've said something today that gave you some
- 10:56Speaker 1: indication that would help change policy or something. So I
- 10:59Speaker 1: thought it was important. But I also think people need
- 11:02Speaker 1: to know that there's been a little bit of a
- 11:03Speaker 1: zigzag and ambivalence about how hard this thing should have
- 11:07Speaker 1: been put out there. And I'm not pointing the figure
- 11:10Speaker 1: at anybody or anything. I'm just saying we know that.
- 11:13Speaker 1: And so I think it's important that we get it
- 11:15Speaker 1: all out. Question so to be clear. So this committee
- 11:20Speaker 1: issued a subpoena to the Department of Justice to release
- 11:22Speaker 1: the full and unredacted files last summer. There's also now
- 11:26Speaker 1: the Epstein Files Transparency Act that asked for the same
- 11:29Speaker 1: that President Trump signed into law. But still the Department
- 11:33Speaker 1: of Justice under this administration has not released all the
- 11:36Speaker 1: files and there have been many illegal redactions. Do you
- 11:40Speaker 1: think that we, of course, as Congress and the American
- 11:43Speaker 1: public should get the full unredacted file immediately? Answer, I
- 11:48Speaker 1: think unless there's some serious danger of physical harm to
- 11:50Speaker 1: one of the victims, there's some national security interest involving intelligence,
- 11:54Speaker 1: because you've heard these, and some of you think there's
- 11:57Speaker 1: some intelligence issues, national security issues. I think the rest
- 12:01Speaker 1: of it ought to be gotten out, and I think
- 12:03Speaker 1: we just need to get to a point where we
- 12:05Speaker 1: can put this behind us. And then I think you,
- 12:08Speaker 1: I hope, you can and will help build us a
- 12:10Speaker 1: system that works in America the way our international system
- 12:14Speaker 1: works best, in trying to identify and stop human trafficking
- 12:17Speaker 1: in and trying to make people whole once they've been damaged.
- 12:22Speaker 1: Question and not a question, but this is just a response,
- 12:24Speaker 1: the law is very clear about the identities of the victims. Unfortunately,
- 12:28Speaker 1: the Department of Justice has wrongfully released some of the information,
- 12:32Speaker 1: including personally identifiable information, while illegally redacting the names of
- 12:36Speaker 1: potential co-conspirators. Bill Clinton, they're going to kill me for
- 12:41Speaker 1: saying this, but I think it's important to say. I
- 12:44Speaker 1: think it's entirely possible that the people at the Justice
- 12:47Speaker 1: Department I don't agree with on nearly anything, right? But
- 12:50Speaker 1: it's possible they didn't intentionally cover some of this up.
- 12:53Speaker 1: But it's hard to accept that when you look at
- 12:55Speaker 1: the other problems in dealing with information. So you guys
- 12:59Speaker 1: got to clear that up. Clean it up. Decide how
- 13:02Speaker 1: you think it should be handled. Question. So before we
- 13:06Speaker 1: go off the record, just one clarification. It's more just
- 13:10Speaker 1: for counsels. The quote from the 2024 memoir, I think,
- 13:13Speaker 1: was accurately quoted in the first instance. The first sentence
- 13:17Speaker 1: is he, meaning Mr. Epstein, hurt a lot of people,
- 13:20Speaker 1: but I knew nothing about it. And by the time
- 13:23Speaker 1: he was first arrested in 2005, I had not contacted him.
- 13:27Speaker 1: And that's the end of the sentence. That's page 373.
- 13:31Speaker 1: So that's just for counsel. No, not at all. They apologize, blah, blah, blah.
- 13:37Speaker 1: And with that, we can end this round and go
- 13:39Speaker 1: off the record. All right, folks, we're going to wrap
- 13:42Speaker 1: up right here, too. And in the next episode dealing
- 13:44Speaker 1: with the topic, we're going to pick up where we
- 13:46Speaker 1: left off. All the information that goes with this episode
- 13:49Speaker 1: can be found in the description box.