Bill Clinton has denied ever visiting Jefferey Epstein’s infamous private island in the Caribbean, but admitted to flying on the “odd” late pedophile’s plane in 2002 and 2003.
The former president addressed his controversial ties with Epstein in his upcoming memoir “Citizen,” claiming that he used the financier’s private plane — nicknamed the Lolita Express — in connection to his work with the Clinton Global Initiative, according to excerpts first reported by The US Sun.
Those reported trips occurred prior to Epstein’s 2005 conviction on child-sex charges in Florida.
“The bottom line is, even though it allowed me to visit the work of my foundation, traveling on Epstein’s plane was not worth the years of questioning afterward,” Clinton wrote, according to the outlet.
“I had always thought Epstein was odd but had no inkling of the crimes he was committing,” the 42nd president reportedly contended.
“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,” Clinton wrote in book, according to the outlet.
“I wish I had never met him,” he added.
Clinton claimed in his book to have only met with Epstein privately on two occasions, both times briefly — once at Epstein’s townhouse on the Upper East Side and then at the Clinton Global Initiative offices in Harlem.
In 2019, a Clinton spokesperson also acknowledged the ex-president flew on the Lolita Express in 2002 and 2003, according to The US Sun.
The spokesperson said Clinton took four trips on Epstein’s private plane — once to Europe, once to Asia, and twice to Africa.
Following one of those trips, Clinton was pictured receiving a backrub from Chauntae Davies, an Epstein accuser who worked as a flight attendant on the Lolita Express.
Davies had previously said she gave Clinton the massage during a layover en route to Africa for a humanitarian trip.
Clinton’s denial of ever having step foot on Little Saint James Island, where Epstein is accused of holding underage sex parties, contradicts bombshell allegations from Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre.
In 2020, it was revealed that Giuffre claimed that Clinton was in fact a guest on the island, though she did not allege any wrongdoing on behalf of the former president.
In Clinton’s memoir, he also opened up about being “caught off guard” and irked about being grilled during a 2018 NBC interview about his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
Clinton was promoting a novel when host Craig Melvin — recently named host of NBC’s “Today” — confronted the ex-president over the Lewinsky scandal in light of the MeToo movement, The Guardian reported.
Melvin asked Clinton if he felt differently in the wake of the new perspective brought on by the social movement.
“I said, ‘No, I felt terrible then,’” Clinton wrote in “Citizen,” according to the outlet.
“‘Did you ever apologize to her?,’” Clinton wrote, paraphrasing Melvin.
“I said that I had apologized to her and everybody else I wronged. I was caught off guard by what came next. ‘But you didn’t apologize 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,” Clinton said.
In the book, Clinton noted he apologized publicly alongside faith leaders at the White House in 1999 — naming his family, Lewinsky and her family, and the American people on his list of wronged parties at the time.
“I meant it then and I mean it today,” Clinton wrote in “Citizen.”
“Citizen: My Life After the White House” will be released on Nov. 19.
