In the next few days, a federal judge is expected to unseal the names of many of the 187 people associated with Jeffrey Epstein in court documents. The names come from a trial between one of Epstein’s accusers and his former partner, Ghislaine Maxwell. Among those on the “Epstein list” are associates or friends who traveled with the accused sex trafficker on his private plane, and as the revelation of those names approaches, many news sites and pundits seem convinced that only one name matters: Bill Clinton.
Fox News has a story up headlining the former president’s expected appearance on the list. Business Insider joins in with another article that puts Clinton as “perhaps the biggest name” to appear on the list. Unsurprisingly, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has also joined in, saying that it’s “no surprise” that Clinton will be on the list. And honestly … it’s not. Flight documents released in 2021 show that Clinton did ride on Epstein’s plane nine times.
But there’s only one name on the list that actually matters. And that name is Donald Trump.
There’s little doubt that Trump’s name is on the list because he appears at least seven times on the flight logs released earlier in the case. For example, here’s one page of the flight log from 1993.
On one of these occasions, Trump was seemingly alone with Epstein on the plane. On another occasion, they were joined by Erin Nance. At the time of the flight, Nance was Miss Georgia and a candidate for Miss USA. Whatever else Nance and Trump may have done on that flight, it appears she was an attentive student because 18 years later she was charged with fraud for allegedly making false statements on a loan application in which she appeared to inflate her real estate assets.
Trump flew on Epstein’s plane four times in 1993, once in 1994, once in 1995, and once in 1997. On some of these trips, he was joined by members of his family. That includes a flight in which he was joined by his former wife Marla Maples and his daughter Tiffany, who was an infant at the time. Eric Trump came along on the 1995 flight.
Those seven times were not the only occasions where Trump and Epstein shared a private plane. New York Magazine reported that Trump hosted Epstein aboard his own jet in 2000. On that occasion, Trump reportedly complained about Epstein and Maxwell being late for the flight. This was around the same time that Maxwell allegedly recruited a 16-year-old employee at Mar-a-Lago to visit Epstein’s private island, where she allegedly suffered repeated sexual abuse, according to an already settled lawsuit against Britain's Prince Andrew.
What’s not expected to be on the flight logs, or in any of the documents to be released, is information showing that either Clinton or Trump flew to Epstein’s private island, which was the alleged scene of multiple sexual assaults of underage victims. In fact, the names on the flight logs are highly varied and include everyone from astronaut and former Sen. John Glenn to conspiracy theorist and Republican stalking horse Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Most of these people appear to have done nothing more than accept a plane ride as part of Epstein’s endless quest to maintain connections across the political spectrum. Others on the list are not politicians or part of a cadre of wealthy developers, but alleged victims bound for one of Epstein’s properties. Some of those names are likely to remain redacted when the list appears.
There’s no doubt that Clinton’s nine flights with Epstein and his known friendship with the alleged trafficker are, at the very least, extremely distasteful. However, there’s a big reason why Clinton’s name on this list is far from the most important: Bill Clinton isn’t running for president. Neither is Hillary Clinton. There is no evidence that either Clinton flew with Epstein to his private island.
However, Donald Trump is running for president. So far as is known at this moment, he is the only presidential candidate who shared a plane with Epstein and who had a long-standing association with both Epstein and Maxwell.
It’s no surprise at all to find that the Fox News article that headlines Clinton doesn’t mention Trump at all. It’s more disappointing that the Business Insider piece follows suit. ABC News, which covered the story on Sunday, mentions both Clinton and Prince Andrew. While it says that “there is no indication the sealed records contain evidence of illegal conduct by Clinton,” it also makes absolutely no mention of Trump.
There seems to be an assumption that an accusation leveled against Clinton is at least as damaging to Democrats as an accusation against Trump would be to Republicans. This is absolutely untrue, because Democrats are not about to make Clinton their party’s nominee. Democrats would also not hesitate to condemn Clinton’s actions should he be accused of criminal acts.
It should be noted that President Joe Biden does not appear on the flight logs and is not expected to be mentioned in the documents to be released. Clinton is serving as a proxy in efforts to tie Epstein to Democrats, and just about every outlet seems willing to go along.
Meanwhile, evidence already shows that Republicans are willing to ignore any unsavory behavior on Trump’s part. That includes not just his longtime association with Epstein and Maxwell, but court findings in a case involving rape and sexual assault. Considering that they also ignored Trump’s public confession of engaging in sexual assault before the 2016 election, that’s only to be expected.
There’s only one name that should matter going into the 2024 election, and it’s not Bill Clinton. But it sure does seem that the media is going to hold up a Clinton-shaped shield to protect Trump from any connection with his longtime friend Jeffrey Epstein.
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