Former President Bill Clinton reportedly stormed the Vanity Fair newsroom and warned staffers not to publish stories about sex trafficking allegations against his close associate Jeffrey Epstein, according to recently unsealed court documents.
Virginia Roberts-Giuffre in a May 2011 email related to an interview for her upcoming book that Clinton "walked into VF and threatened them not to write sex-trafficking articles about his good friend JE." There is no supporting evidence for her wild claim, and the notion that the former president would publicly intervene in such a manner seems highly improbable. Bill Clinton is presently believed to be on vacation in the Mexican city of San Miguel de Allende.
Strange Claim but Doubts Remain
The claim about Clinton, disclosed in the most recent set of documents linked to Epstein that were unveiled on Thursday night, was brought up by Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre in a 2011 email exchange with Daily Mail journalist Sharon Churcher.
Churcher was advising Giuffre on whether to participate in an interview and sell a photo to the publication, also offering assistance in securing a book deal at that time.
"When I was doing some research into VF yesterday, it does concern me what they could want to write about me considering that B.Clinton walked into VF and threatened them not to write sex-trafficking articles about his good friend J.E," Giuffre wrote in the email.
It remains uncertain where Giuffre obtained information about the alleged threats and a former Vanity Fair editor, Graydon Carter, stated to the Telegraph on Thursday that "This categorically did not happen."
A separate document released on Thursday identified Clinton as someone who "traveled with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell and may have information about Ghislane Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein's sexual trafficking conduct."
In response to this, a spokesperson for Clinton referred to a 2019 statement, claiming that the former president "knows nothing about the terrible crimes" Epstein pleaded guilty to and was accused of, and that he hadn't spoken to the known pedophile "in well over a decade."
The spokesperson also mentioned that Clinton took a total of four trips on Epstein's plane in 2002 and 2003, related to work for the Clinton Foundation.
Bombshell Revelations
Epstein, however, allegedly prevented Vanity Fair from publishing a report by journalist Vicky Ward, who had interviewed the Farmer sisters, Maria and Annie, about their abuse by the financier.
Ward revealed in her 2022 podcast that Epstein threatened her, claiming to have damaging information about her and her husband. Vanity Fair stated that the claims of sexual abuse were not included in the published 2003 article because they were added late and did not meet legal standards.
The correspondence from Roberts-Giuffre was made public on Thursday as part of a collection of documents from her 2015 defamation case against Maxwell, Epstein's associate.
Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence, while Epstein died by suicide in jail awaiting trial in August 2019.
The documents released on Thursday constitute the second batch of files to be unsealed by the Manhattan court.
Clinton is just one among numerous high-profile figures, including Prince Andrew and the late scientist Stephen Hawking, who have been mentioned in the files released on Wednesday.
Additional documents are expected to be filed on Friday and potentially on Monday, totaling 240. These documents are expected to name over 170 associates, former employees, and victims connected to Epstein.
The complete set of documents, mandated to be released by Manhattan federal Judge Loretta Preska last month, originates from a defamation lawsuit that Giuffre filed against the dead sex offender's madame Ghislaine Maxwell in 2015.
While thousands of pages from the lawsuit had been previously made public, some sections and names were redacted due to privacy concerns. The latest release on Wednesday included claims, such as allegations that Prince Andrew took part in an "underage orgy."
Johanna Sjoberg, an Epstein victim who worked as a masseuse for the financier, said in a 2016 deposition that Prince Andrew groped her breast while she sat on his lap at Epstein's Manhattan townhouse in 2001.
In the same deposition, Sjoberg also testified that Epstein mentioned former Clinton "likes them young" and had proposed landing his private jet at one of former President Donald Trump's casinos in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Sjoberg said in her deposition that she met Michael Jackson at Epstein's Palm Beach, Florida, home, clarifying that nothing inappropriate occurred with the late pop icon.
She also testified about attending a dinner at one of Epstein's homes where magician David Copperfield performed magic tricks and asked whether she was aware "that girls were getting paid to find other girls."
