Bill Clinton admits he found pedophile Jeffrey Epstein ‘odd’ in new memoir
Former US President Bill Clinton admits he found pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein “odd” adding that he wished he had never met him in his new memoir to be released next week.
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Former US President Bill Clinton has revealed he found Jeffrey Epstein to be “odd” and admitted he wished he and the pedophile financier had never been introduced.
The admission by Mr Clinton, 78, is made in his upcoming memoir, Citizen, out next week.
In the book, Mr Clinton admits he flew on Epstein’s private jet in 2002 and 2003 after the financier offered the plane’s use in support of the former president’s foundation.
Mr Clinton adds that the pair spoke about economics and politics but stresses the two met only briefly after that and dismissed the historical allegation that he visited Epstein’s private island in the US Virgin Islands.
“I had always thought Epstein was odd but had no inkling of the crimes he was committing,” Mr Clinton writes.
“He hurt a lot of people, but I knew nothing about it, and by the time he was first arrested in 2005, I had stopped contact with him. I’ve never visited his island.”
Mr Clinton points to the Secret Service’s “extraordinary” decision to say in 2016 that the former president had never waived protection and they had never been to Epstein’s Caribbean island as evidence he never visited the island.
“The bottom line is, even though it allowed me to visit the work of my foundation, travelling on Epstein’s plane was not worth the years of questioning afterward,” Clinton adds.
But the controversial link to Epstein isn’t the only admission Mr Clinton makes in the memoir.
The former president also explains why he believes Monica Lewinsky deserves “recognition” as he delves into the pain caused by his affair with the young White House intern.
Mr Clinton was impeached in 1998 for famously lying about having a sexual relationship with Ms Lewinsky who was then a 22-year-old intern.
The memoir Citizen: My Life After the White House, was obtained by The Guardian ahead of its release.
In it, Mr Clinton explains his feelings on his impeachment as well as those toward Ms Lewinsky and the late financier Epstein.
“I live with it all the time,” Mr Clinton wrote.
“Monica’s done a lot of good and important work over the last few years in her campaign against bullying, earning her well-deserved recognition in the United States and abroad.
“I wish her nothing but the best.”
The book, which will be released in America on Tuesday, explores Mr Clinton’s discomfort during a 2018 NBC interview when he thought he was going to be talking about a novel he co-authored with renowned writer James Patterson.
Instead, host Craig Melvin blindsided him with a question about Ms Lewinsky asking if in light of the MeToo movement Mr Clinton would resign from the presidency if the same thing had happened today.
“I said, ‘No, I felt terrible then.’ ‘Did you ever apologise to her?’ I said that I had apologised to her and everybody else I wronged. I was caught off guard by what came next,” Mr Clinton wrote.
“‘But you didn’t apologise to her, at least according to folks that we’ve talked to.’ I fought to contain my frustration as I replied that while I’d never talked to her directly, I did say publicly on more than (one) occasion I was sorry.”
Mr Clinton clarified in the memoir that while he did publicly apologise to Ms Lewinsky, he never did so privately.
“I meant it then and I mean it today,” he writes.
Mr Clinton was busy during the US election campaign throwing his support behind unsuccessful Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.
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Originally published as Bill Clinton admits he found pedophile Jeffrey Epstein ‘odd’ in new memoir