Trump Retweeted a Baseless Conspiracy Theory About Jeffrey Epstein and the Clintons
Donald Trump has peddled in debunked conspiracy theories for years, from the racist myth that Barack Obama was not born in the United States to his unfounded vaccine fear mongering. And within hours of the announcement of accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide in a Manhattan jail, Trump amplified a baseless far-right conspiracy theory that accused the Clintons of playing a role in Epstein’s death.
"Died of SUICIDE on 24/7 SUICIDE WATCH ? Yeah right! How does that happen," wrote conservative comic Terrence K. Williams in the caption of a video shared by the president on Twitter. "#JefferyEpstein had information on Bill Clinton & now he’s dead." In the video itself, Williams said "for some odd reason, people that have information on the Clintons end up dead." The president also retweeted another post containing a similar implication.
No evidence released so far suggests that Epstein’s death was anything other than a jailhouse suicide, which are, unfortunately, relatively common occurrences. And there’s no evidence implicating the Clintons in his demise—or in the demise of anyone else. The accused child sex trafficker was not on suicide watch when he died; despite making an attempt on his life on July 23rd, he was removed from constant observation 6 days later. On Saturday, Attorney General William Barr pledged to investigate the circumstances surrounding Epstein’s death.
In an appearance on CNN’s State of the Union Sunday, presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke condemned Trump’s tweets. “This is another example of our president using this position of public trust to attack his political enemies with unfounded conspiracy theories,” said O’Rourke.
Fellow presidential candidate Cory Booker also condemned the tweets in his appearance on the same show. "This is just more recklessness," said Booker. "What he’s doing is dangerous. He’s giving life not just to conspiracy theories, but really whipping people up into anger and worse against different people in this country."
2020 presidential candidate Cory Booker on President Trump’s conspiracy theory about Jeffrey Epstein’s death: “This is a very dangerous President that we have right now” #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/AjfIhPRMJa
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) August 11, 2019
Though Trump did not directly make the claims himself, by sharing the tweets he greatly amplified their reach. The video by Williams that the president retweeted has so far received more three times as many views as Williams’ other recent clips.
Epstein’s death has fueled conspiracy theorizing due in part to his ties to two presidents. Both Trump and Bill Clinton are among his former friends. Flight logs show that Clinton flew on the financier’s private plane dozens of times, while Trump declared in a 2002 interview that he’d known Epstein since 1987, and that he was a "terrific guy" and "a lot of fun to be with." Recently discovered footage found Trump and Epstein chatting cheerfully at a Mar-a-Lago party in 1992.
Neither man appears to have associated with Epstein in recent years—according to The Washington Post, Epstein and Trump had a falling out over a real estate deal in 2004. In a statement released in June, Clinton’s spokesperson said that the former president had not spoken to Epstein in more than ten years.
The same spokesperson, Angel Ure?a, responded to the posts Trump shared on Twitter. "Ridiculous, and of course not true," he wrote, "and Donald Trump knows it."
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