Following the Dec. 19 release of documents and photos related to the investigation of sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, Bill Clinton’s chief of staff is speaking out.
Clinton appears in a number of the images released by the Department of Justice in accordance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, signed into law by President Donald Trump on Nov. 19. In response to the photos, Clinton chief of staff Angel Ureña wrote in a statement posted to X that the DOJ’s decision to “dump” the files “late on a Friday” was not “to protect Bill Clinton.”
“The White House hasn’t been hiding these files for months only to dump them late on a Friday to protect Bill Clinton,” the statement claims, in reference to the administration of President Donald Trump, who is also seen in photos from the Epstein files. “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.”
Ureña then referenced White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles’ recent comments to Vanity Fair, in which she said that there’s “no evidence” that Clinton made numerous trips to Epstein’s private island, Little St. James.
“There are two types of people here. The first group knew nothing and cut Epstein off before his crimes came to light,” Ureña continued. “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.”
Ureña concluded the statement by noting that “Everyone, especially MAGA, expects answers, not scapegoats.”
Signed into law by President Donald Trump on Nov. 19, the Jeffrey Epstein Files Transparency Act requires the release “all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials in DOJ’s possession that relate to the investigation and prosecution of Jeffrey Epstein,” according to an official House summary.
In one photo released by the DOJ on Friday, the former president can be seen swimming in a pool with Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, along with a woman whose face has been redacted with black square.
In another, Clinton stands in between Epstein and another man, smiling as his he drapes his arms over both men. A third image shows a woman whose face has been redacted sits near Clinton’s lap in what appears to be the seat of a private jet.
Clinton has repeatedly denied any involvement in or knowledge of Epstein’s crimes.
In a July 2019 statement, Ureña said, “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.”
The statement maintained that Clinton was on Epstein’s jet a total of four times and in his Harlem office once, all while accompanied by his Secret Service detail: “He’s not spoken to Epstein in well over a decade, and has never been to Little St. James Island, Epstein’s ranch in New Mexico, or his residence in Florida.”