Bizarre, Criminal law, Media, Politics, Torts

Clinton Challenged On Denial Of Epstein Flights and Knowledge Of Crimes

225px-Bill_ClintonMany people were surprised yesterday when former President Bill Clinton finally made a public statement after over a decade on his relationship with convicted felon and billionaire Jeffrey Epstein.  Epstein was charged this week with sex trafficking and conspiracy.  Clinton has long been connected with over two dozen flights on Epstein’s place, often called the “Lolita Express” for its reputation for underaged girls and orgies.  Clinton also reportedly told the Secret Service not to accompany him on some flights with Epstein.  Clinton now denies ever traveling without the Secret Service and claims that he only flew with Epstein four times on routine flights. Various people are challenging that account including the journalist, Conchita Sarnoff, who previously wrote on the flight logs and records showing Clinton’s trip.

Clinton’s spokesman, Angel Ureña, made the statement in a post on Twitter.

Sarnoff is now the executive director of Alliance to Rescue Victims of Trafficking and the author of her book “Trafficking.”  She directly called Clinton as “not telling the truth” on national television and said that flight logs directly contradict him: “I know from the pilot logs and these are pilot logs that you know were written by different pilots and at different times that Clinton went, he was a guest of Epstein’s 27 times . . . many of those times Clinton had his Secret Service with him and many times he did not.”

That leaves a starkly different factual account. This is not a matter of opinion.  The question is whether Clinton, who has previously lied about his sexual controversies, will now sue for defamation.  Either he took these flights with a known sexual predator or he did not.  Either he knew of Epstein’s preying on young girls or he did not.

In this case, both Clinton and Sarnoff would be viewed a public figures under the “Actual Malice” standard.  Over 50 years ago, the Supreme Court decision in New York Times v. Sullivan set the governing standard for public officials (and later extended to public figures) in suing critics.  The Supreme Court recognized the danger of such civil liability in creating a chilling effect on reporters and their companies in the coverage of political figures. Imposing a high standard for proof of defamation, Justice William Brennan sought to give the free press “breathing space” to carry out its key function in our system. The “actual malice” standard requires a showing that the newspaper published a false report with either actual knowledge of its falsity or a reckless disregard of the truth.

In the past, logs have been shown with notations for Clinton and the Secret Service has refused to answer questions about those flights that do not list Secret Service agents onboard.  Past accounts do not show trip to Epstein’s island home, which has been called “orgy island” by critics.

The much-delayed statement from Clinton could allow for the resolution of this question. It would be an easy thing to confirm the trips and particularly any exclusion of the Secret Service detail. If Clinton is telling the truth, it is bizarre that he would wait this long after widespread accounts of these trips.  If he is not, the public should know the truth.

 

98 thoughts on “Clinton Challenged On Denial Of Epstein Flights and Knowledge Of Crimes”

  1. Another theory: Offer Epstein lenient sentence in order to entice him to compose stories about Trump. Don’t have to be at all true, or even remotely true. Just get them out in the media, and half the commenters here will gobble it up like candy.

    1. And we can count on Turley to report them all here, in real time!!!!

  2. Bill and Hillary Clinton began their lives of crime in the 1970’s.

    Bill was allegedly expelled from Oxford for the alleged rape of Eileen Wellstone. The records have been scrubbed. The scrubbed records show that Bill did not succeed at Oxford and that Bill did not graduate from Oxford. Bill abruptly left Oxford and returned to the U.S. Why? Can’t really say because the record has been scrubbed.

    Hillary Clinton, as the wife of the governor of Arkansas (having been thoroughly educated in cattle futures trading at Wellesley – not), magically became a “cattle futures trader” overnight and turned $1K into $100K in six months using the same broker as that of Tyson Chicken.

    The Clinton’s long life of crime culminated in the Clinton Foundation which is alleged to have raised $ 2 billion.

  3. Remember this one? Jen Moore was proving the case of sexual assault by Bill Clinton. Oops. She’s dead.

    August 13, 2018

    An advocate and investigator into trafficked and abused children, Moore was in the process of looking into allegations made by a 26-year-old man who claimed as a young boy, Bill Clinton had sexually assaulted him and pimped him out at private D.C. sex parties where other D.C. elites frequented.

    Jen thought that with a criminal probe, federal agents could use the victim possibly to dangle in front of Clinton to see if he made a mistake or tried to pay him off, the site said. She was worried about the safety of the victim and was working to find him safe harbor until this story broke. Now she is the one who turned up dead.

  5. TRUMP DENIES HE KNEW EPSTEIN

    BUT THEY WERE FRIENDS UNTIL TRUMP BANNED HIM

    Back in 2002, when Jeffrey Epstein was known only as a mysterious financial whiz with a private island and a roster of A-list friends, being friendly with him was something to boast about. And Donald Trump did.

    “I’ve known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy,” Trump told New York Magazine that year for a story headlined “Jeffrey Epstein: International Moneyman of Mystery.” “He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it — Jeffrey enjoys his social life.”

    Now, Epstein is in jail, charged with sex trafficking by federal prosecutors who allege he abused dozens of underage women in New York and Palm Beach, Fla. He is no longer a friend anyone would want to claim.

    And now, Trump doesn’t.

    Alan Garten, an attorney for the Trump Organization, has said Trump had “no relationship” with Epstein.

    Outside of Trump’s own words, there is clear evidence that the two men — both members of the same highflying societies in Manhattan and Palm Beach — socialized together in the past.

    Epstein visited Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach and posed for photos there with Trump in 1997 and 2000.

    Epstein’s voluminous personal address book — leaked by an Epstein employee in 2009 — contained 14 phone numbers for Trump, his wife, Melania, and members of his staff, according to media reports.

    The relationship, whatever it was, appears to have cooled by 2007. Garten said in an interview Monday that although Epstein was never a member of Mar-a-Lago, Trump prohibited him from visiting the club around that time, as a reaction to criminal charges that had been filed against Epstein.

    “He banned him from stepping foot on the property,” Garten said. He said Trump’s private attorneys were not contacted during the more recent investigation of Epstein, which resulted in a 14-page federal indictment unsealed Monday.

    1. It speaks very well for Trump that he banned this pervert from his properties. Good for Trump!

    2. Regarding Above:

      Edited from: “Trump Called Epstein ‘A Terrific Guy Who Enjoys Younger Women’ Before Denying Relationship With Him”

      Today’s Washington Post
      ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

      To his credit, Trump broke off whatever friendship he had with Epstein back in 2007. But his denial of ever knowing Epstein is too easy to disprove. Palm Beach is not that big of a town that two billionaires wouldn’t ever bump into each other.

      Trump could be honest and say he knew Epstein but later distanced himself. That would be perfectly sufficient in contrast to Bill Clinton’s friendship.

      1. https://bigleaguepolitics.com/epstein-dined-with-george-stephanopoulos-and-katie-couric-after-first-release-from-jail/
        We don’t need to reach back to 15 or 20 year old statements by Trump to find those with a “relationship” with Epstein.
        Far more recently, the individuals named in the linked article had “a relationship” with Epstein. As long as some are grasping at straws….old straws….to suggest a “relationship”, let’s go with something more recent.

        1. Tom, are liberals supposed to run and hide because George Stephenopoulis and Kaite Couric knew Epstein..??? I don’t watch ABC News. And I don’t even know what Couric is up to these days.

          Your comment above perfectly illustrates what I meant about Fox News (and cable news in general). Fox viewers like you reduce every argument to some mindless ‘what about?’.

          Regarding your article from Big League Politics, the quality of writing leaves much to be desired. That story jumps all over the place amid a clutter of cheapie ads.

          1. I think the suggestion by Peter is that Trump is supposed to run and hide because he knew Epstein.
            I’m not going to try to figure out which comments I make are posting or not posting. Or posting, then disappearing.
            Or posting as a reply below a comment, them being repositioned 50-100 comments away.
            I try another post thanking those like Peter and Natacha for protecting America from Fox News😳🤪😨.
            Without vigilant, obseesive lunatics like these two, the True Dangers of Fox might remain unknown.
            I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone as paranoid as these two when it comes to terror of any media publication.
            Maybe another thousand or two thousand warnings about Fox will get the job done, and make all of as frightened as these two morons.

  6. There is some speculation that Epstein was always just a front for some big moneyed somebody who wanted blackmail material on powerful people. The speculation is fueled by the mystery surrounding the source of Epstein’s wealth, who his clients are(were), and the incredibly sweetheart deal Acosta gave him.

    Stranger things have happened in this wacky world we live in.

    1. Epstein was operating a CIA op. Acosta now says he was told by a superior that Epstein belonged to intel and that he should back off.

      When Epstein, as a young NYU dropout with neither a degree nor teaching experience, was hired to teach by the Dalton School, the president of the school was Donald Barr, the father of AG William Barr and a former OSS officer. William Barr’s first job was with the CIA, so the father must have maintained the connection with his old colleagues. From Dalton, Epstein’s career blossomed.

      We always knew the CIA was immoral, but this case carries its depravity to a new level.

      1. “We always knew the CIA was immoral, but this case carries its depravity to a new level.”

        Another swamp that needs to be drained.

  7. Trump’s long relationship with Epstein is important, but not as important as that of the former president.

  9. New York Daily News in 2007 on Bill Clinton:

    “He’s sick – he’s got an addiction. He needs treatment,” Ford told Daily News Washington Bureau Chief Thomas M. DeFrank, author of “Write It When I’m Gone: Remarkable Off-the-Record Conversations with Gerald R. Ford.”

    The story of Bill Clinton’s 26 flights on the Lolita Express was published years ago. Wouldn’t you think that the corrupt corporate media would have covered it in the 2016 election race? Of course not…even though they were aware of the story.

    Trump Hater Donny Deutch on Clinton and Epstein in early 2016:

  10. Alex Acosta made an ethically compromised decision 10 years ago. Today, he should resign | Editorial

    BY THE MIAMI HERALD EDITORIAL BOARD

    JULY 08, 2019 10:45 PM

    https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/article232432722.html

    Excerpt:

    If Alexander Acosta had done in South Florida what Geoffrey Berman just did in New York, Jeffrey Epstein, a sexual predator, might already be behind bars for the rest of his life instead of serving only 13 months.

    If Acosta, when he was U.S. attorney in Miami, had shown an ounce of sympathy for the vulnerable girls Epstein sexually exploited, they would have had a powerful voice on their side. They didn’t. Now, Berman, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, is their next best hope for justice.

    If Acosta had not shown himself to be ethically challenged 10 years ago, we wouldn’t be calling for his resignation as U.S. secretary of Labor now. But we are — again.

    Excerpt:

    In reality, Acosta’s current job has nothing to do with his former position as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida. Except for this: He is an ethically compromised public servant who has failed to address his suspect actions in this case, but he continues to act on citizens’ behalf in the public domain.

    In December, we said: “Acosta is now damaged goods. He should realize it and move on. He does not deserve to be in the halls of power — he abused his power so tragically.”

    As evidence grows against Epstein, through both the Miami Herald’s pit-bull reporting and because a U.S. attorney is committed to seeing justice done, it is evidence, too, that not only did Acosta fail to get it right in 2008, but also that he didn’t care to.

    2. Acosta must be investigated for his corrupt actions and Trump needs to wake up and fire this piece of %$&*.

  11. “Imposing a high standard for proof of defamation, Justice William Brennan sought to give the free press “breathing space” to carry out its key function in our system. The “actual malice” standard requires a showing that the newspaper published a false report with either actual knowledge of its falsity or a reckless disregard of the truth.”
    *************************
    It’s an impossible standard to meet though Trump may be the best public figure in history to prove it. The case harkens to a point in time when the news-producing industry was a three-headed TV monster with some rarely profitable daily papers thrown in. Now every jamoke with a Go-Pro and an ISP claims to be journalist and worthy of Constitutional protection. NYT v. Sullivan is an anachronism which directly led to the partisan arrogance the press exudes today. It’s tenure for the punditry propagandist crowd. If you want to see the press for what it really is watch Paddy Chayefsky’s “Network” or Sydney Pollack’s “Absence of Malice” sometime. You’ll wonder what the SCOTUS was thinking about when they immunized these shameless profiteers of misery, lies and hype.

    1. Or just listen to “Dirty Laundry” by Don Henley, Mespo.

    2. mespo……..True about Abscence of Malice! That was hard for hubby to watch after having to deal with press alot.
      And OT……..hubby had an abdominal aortic aneurysm BURST last week…..is out of ICU and home now. doing better.
      Life is fragile.
      We should make the most of it every day. Bill Clinton, esp, knows that…….wonder when he will ever grow up?!

      1. Cindy, sorry to hear about hubby’s health scare. Glad he’s home and doing better.

        1. mespo……thank you so much. Bless you. It’s slow going, but he survived. Those surgeries are 50–50 chances.
          Y’all take care of yourselves up there, too!

  12. My assumption would be the Bilge Clinton is trying to brazen it out. He’ll create some static as talking points fodder for Democratic cult members, but carefully avoid any statements likely to generate an indictment.

    No clue what’s going on here. My wager would be that Acosta was being blackmailed or he was protecting someone he actually cared about. My other wager is that while the general charge against Epstein and his minions is true, some of the specifics are bum raps.

  13. Observe the casting of aspersions by the AP, regarding how it was Fox News that obtained the flight logs, a key piece of evidence.
    So predictable, classic Bill Clinton liberal scorched earth tactics

    And lo, more Clinton double speak: Bill Clinton pivoted away from the truth that he and Epstein are, and used Africa, the poor and AIDS to whitewash themselves. Pigs. Castration would be fitting for both of them, not that Hillary would care.

    😜

    https://apnews.com/3d0490c6774048dc8a5f4fe80d0cf71f

    Epstein was also an associate of Clinton’s, repeatedly lending the former president his jet to travel overseas. Flight logs obtained by Fox News showed the former president took at least 26 trips aboard Epstein’s Boeing 727, nicknamed the “Lolita Express,” from 2001 to 2003. That “included extended junkets around the world with Epstein and fellow passengers identified on manifests by their initials or first names, including ‘Tatiana,’” the outlet found.

    “Jeffrey is both a highly successful financier and a committed philanthropist with a keen sense of global markets and an in-depth knowledge of twenty-first-century science,” Clinton told New York magazine though a spokesman for that same 2002 story. “I especially appreciated his insights and generosity during the recent trip to Africa to work on democratization, empowering the poor, citizen service, and combating HIV/AIDS.”

  14. Note that Robert Mueller was the Director of the FBI at the time of Epstein’s Florida conviction and likely Alex Acosta’s boss at the time.
    Perhaps Mueller made the decision to do a deal to get any conviction on the books.

    1. The FBI director is not in the chain of command of the U.S. Attorney. There’s an administrative secretariat for U.S. Attorney’s in Washington, but (if I’m not mistaken) they report to the Attorney-General. IIRC, about 5% of the Justice Dept’s caseload is taken by the division chiefs in Washington, while the other 95% is handled by the U.S. Attorneys from coast to coast. The FBI is a constituent agency of the Department of Justice and reports to the Attorney-General (through one intermediary, I think).

    2. There are plenty of people in Epstein’s list of contacts…like the pig of all pigs Alec Baldwin…true scum

      looking forward to seeing some of these flip and embarrass Bill Clinton and all FOB….yet again!

      To be sure, Epstein’s contact list includes many prominent people, both men and women, who are fixtures in the celebrity party scene….The names include well known performers, including Ralph Fiennes, Alec Baldwin, David Blaine, Jimmy Buffett and Courtney Love; media figures including Charlie Rose, Mike Wallace and Barbara Walters; former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak, former British prime minister Tony Blair, industrialist David Koch and the late Salomon Brothers chief executive officer John Gutfreund and his wife, Susan.

      https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-08/if-you-flew-the-lolita-express-the-feds-want-to-talk-to-you

      1. I think Epstein is a scum and hope he gets a severe punishment after a fair trial, but it would be irresponsible to impute sexual mjsconduct to all these different people just as a matter of guilt by association. Facts and evidence should be the basis for accusations of crime, not innuendo. Or else this just becomes another episode of the hysterical metoo and timesup mania.

        1. Kurtz: “it would be irresponsible to impute sexual misconduct to all these different people just as a matter of guilt by association”

          It would also be irresponsible to not ask many questions of those people who did visit his island and various homes which were allegedly covered with pictures of naked underage girls. If you’ve been palling around with someone who turns out to be trafficking underage kids then you will rightly come under suspicion. We need a proper, tough investigation.

          1. of course they are potential witnesses at the very least and should be interviewed

            prince andrew is not going to get interviewed about this however and neither will any Saudi prince

            the dailybest reports that somebody told Acosta “hands off” Epstein and that he “belonged to intel” and you know i would not be too surprised if that were indeed the case.

            spooks and spies are not above using sexual perverts to do their mischief. history abounds with examples.

            1. if people had any idea how much the cops, let alone spies, actually work hand in glove with a lot of unsavory criminals who are allowed to run amuck so long as they keep acting as informants, it would scare the bejeezus out of folks

              whitey bulger was just one example

              think about this. Sammy the Bull Gravano confessed to killing 30 some people.

              The feds gave him a new identity and cut him loose after short time, because he testified against Gotti.

              Gravano was basically a serial killer. They cut him loose and set him up in witness protection, no problem!

              Scary stuff man

        2. The fact is he is a proven predator and its been an open secret for YEARS…..just like Weinstein they knew and didnt care.Now this all makes more sense.

          Barbara Walters wasn’t sympathetic when Corey Feldman admitted being abused by Hollywood pedophiles

          Barbara Walters Says To Corey Feldman “You’re Damaging An Entire Industry”

          https://youtu.be/dsCM7NeFu5w

      2. I would add Prince Andrew whose photograph with Virginia Roberts and Ghislaine Maxwell is all over the internet.

    3. perhaps and you can see how some cases can be plead out but it may not be a technical double jeopardy against repeat use of some of the evidence in different charges.

      Was Ghislane Maxwell charged, convicted, incarcerated, or what?

  15. Hillary doesn’t recall anything, either, knows it all to be lies.

    1. I’m waiting for her to say it’s a vast right wing conspiracy, and if you drag $100 through Orgy Island, you never know who’s going to turn up. Maybe she’ll use a Bimbo Eruptions volcanic metaphor, since it is an island. She’ll move her hands in measured, calm talking points to the press.

  16. It’s okay if he lies………he is a respected elder statesman, our greatest President ever, and a liberal.

  17. Also look into the Angelfire flights covered in depth by the Albuquerque paper.

  18. Of course he lied. It’s worked for them before. Just keep lying, and then claim it’s old news.

    1. The Secret Service has a long standing tradition of being silent as the confessional. They do not comment on the activities of their charges. Otherwise, their access would be more restricted. They were ordered to testify in the Lewinsky case, which is probably why Clinton did not have them accompany him to Orgy Island. The protective function privilege argued by the SS in that case would not have applied to felonies. This would raise issues of whether the SS ever witnessed or learned of felonies, and did not report them.

      Should a criminal case ever be brought against Clinton, this could have far reaching impacts on the Secret Service.

  19. FFS. It’s not the Loretta Express. It’s the Lolita Express.

    1. FFS,
      JT may have been thinking about Loretta “Tarmac” Lynch.
      But we can’t really say “Loretta Express” since both planes were parked.😉

    3. That’s right. Turley must have been thinking of the the Loretta Express….which was the other plane….the one on the tarmac….where Bubba and the Attorney General had a random meeting….to catch up and chit chat about golf and grandchildren 😉

    4. Loretta Express? OMG! Did she also go to Orgy Island? This gets more sordid by the day!

  20. The words “Bill Clinton” and “truth” don’t belong in the same paragraph. Throw “is” in there too.

    1. Like Gonorrhea, Bill Clinton is the gift that keeps on giving….kinda like a bacteria resistant super bug

      😉

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