Two US presidents and their associations with Epstein

US President Donald Trump and former US President Bill Clinton are among several high-profile figures known to have ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Trump and Clinton were photographed with Epstein several times during the 1990s and early 2000s and sometimes moved in the same social circles.

Neither Trump nor Clinton have been accused of wrongdoing by survivors of Epstein's abuse, and they both deny knowledge of his sex crimes. All publicly available evidence to date suggests that their relationship with Epstein ended several years before his conviction.

BBC Verify scoured online archives to examine what we know about the two presidents' decades-long ties to Jeffrey Epstein.

Jeffrey Epstein's association with Donald Trump appears to have begun around the late 1980s, and with Bill Clinton in the early 1990s.

In an interview with New York Magazine in 2002 Trump said he knew Epstein for 15 years, dating back to around 1987.

There are several photos and videos of Trump and Epstein at various events in the early 1990s.

Archival footage shows the couple attending a party at Mar-a-Lago in 1992.. Behind them can be seen Ghislaine Maxwell, an Epstein associate convicted on sex trafficking charges in 2021.

According to NBC, which discovered the footage from its archives in 2019, the video was filmed for an American talk show called Queer Look, which featured the “recently divorced” Trump in one episode.

At one point, footage shows Trump dancing surrounded by young women. NBC reports that the women were fans of the Buffalo Bills, who were in town for a game against the Miami Dolphins.

Photos obtained by CNN. show that Epstein attended Trump's wedding to Maria Maples in 1993 and that same year the couple appeared together at the opening of a Harley Davidson cafe in New York.

At the end of the decade in 1999 two men were filmed talking to each other at a Victoria's Secret fashion event. in New York.

There are also photos of Bill Clinton with Epstein in the early 1990s.

For example, in September 1993 Epstein and Maxwell were photographed speaking with then-President Clinton. following an event for donors to the White House Restoration Project.

Public records show that Epstein made two $1,000 donations to Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign.

Trump and Clinton's relationships with Epstein continued into the new millennium.

The photographs were published in the Florida newspaper The Palm Beach Post. show Trump, Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell and Prince Andrew at a charity fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago in 2000.

Two years later, in New York Magazine, Trump said Epstein was a “terrific guy” and that “they even say he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are younger.”

In the same article, Clinton said through a spokesman that Epstein was “both a highly successful financier and a dedicated philanthropist.”

Around this time, Clinton was traveling on Epstein's private jet.

Shortly after Epstein was arrested on sex trafficking charges in July 2019, Clinton's spokesman said in a statement to X. that the former president took four trips on Epstein's plane between 2002 and 2003, including “stops in connection with the work of the Clinton Foundation.”

Referring to one of these trips, a Clinton spokesman said in a 2002 New York Magazine article that Clinton “appreciated him [Epstein's] ideas and generosity during a recent trip to Africa to work on democratization, empowerment of the poor, civic services and the fight against HIV/AIDS.”

A statement from Clinton's press secretary in 2019 also confirmed that a meeting between the two took place at Epstein's Harlem office in 2002, as well as a “brief visit” to Epstein's New York apartment around the same time.

Photo of Epstein and Clinton in Brunei in 2002. appears in this archived version of the Vanity Fair article.

Both Trump and Clinton, along with about 50 other people, are said to have contributed to a book commemorating Jeffrey Epstein's 50th birthday in 2003.

Earlier this year, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) published a letter signed by Trump under an image of a naked woman, saying: “Happy Birthday – and may each day be another wonderful secret.”

Trump denied writing the letter to Epstein and sued the WSJ for libel. He told ABC News at the time: “That's not my signature. And that's not what I'm saying. And anyone who's covered me for a long time knows it's not my language.”

Bill Clinton's name appeared in the birthday book next to a message that read: “Isn't it encouraging that it has lasted this long, despite all the years of learning and learning and adventure and [illegible word]and also have a childlike curiosity, a desire to make a difference and comfort friends.”

Clinton has not commented on her alleged message in the congratulatory book.

Around the middle of the decade, Clinton and Trump's relationship with Epstein appeared to be over.

After Epstein's arrest in 2019, Trump spoke about their relationship: “I quarreled with him a long time ago. I think I haven’t talked to him for 15 years.” This suggests that the latter two spoke around 2004.

In 2025, Trump told reporters in Scotland he kicked Epstein out of Mar-a-Lago because he “stole” his employees.

“I said don’t ever do that again. He did it again and I threw him out of this place,” Trump said.

In 2019, a Clinton spokesman said the former president “hasn't spoken to Epstein in over a decade.”

In his memoirs published last year, Clinton said he had “no idea of ​​the crimes he was committing.” [Epstein] committed,” adding, “by the time he was first arrested in 2005, I had stopped contacting him.”

Epstein was first convicted of sex crimes in 2008. Shortly after he was jailed on sex trafficking charges in 2019, he committed suicide in his prison cell.

BBC Verify has contacted the White House and Bill Clinton's office for comment.

The White House told us: “President Trump has continually called for transparency regarding Epstein's files, and his administration has delivered – by releasing thousands of pages of documents, cooperating with a House Oversight Committee subpoena request, and President Trump recently calling for further investigations into Epstein's Democratic friends, the Trump administration has done more for victims than Democrats ever did.”