Trump is "wrong" about Clinton-Epstein accusations, WH chief of staff says
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Undated image of Jeffrey Epstein and President Trump released last week. House Oversight Democrats
President Trump's chief of staff Susie Wiles contradicted his claims about former President Clinton's ties to Jeffrey Epstein in a new interview with Vanity Fair published Tuesday.
The big picture: The president has repeatedly tried to deflect attention from his own ties to Epstein by spotlighting Clinton's relationship with the convicted sex offender.
Driving the news: In the Vanity Fair interview published Tuesday, Wiles is quoted as saying that Trump "was wrong" about his repeated claim that the Epstein files reveal anything incriminating about Clinton.
- Trump has said that Clinton visited Epstein's private island, Little St. James, "supposedly 28 times," which Clinton has denied.
- "There is no evidence" those visits happened, Wiles said, per Vanity Fair.
Flashback: After House Democrats released a series of emails last month detailing Trump's connection to Epstein, Trump directed the Justice Department to "investigate Jeffrey Epstein's involvement and relationship with Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, Reid Hoffman, J.P. Morgan, Chase, and many other people and institutions."
What they're saying: Wiles said after her comments were published that the piece was "a disingenuously framed hit piece on me and the finest President, White House staff, and Cabinet in history."
- "Significant context was disregarded and much of what I, and others, said about the team and the President was left out of the story."
Catch up quick: House Oversight Democrats last week released a new round of photos showing powerful figures socializing with Epstein, including Trump, Clinton, Steve Bannon and Woody Allen.
- Democrats said they received 95,000 new photos from Epstein's estate, releasing 19.
- The undated photos show Trump speaking to various women with their faces redacted, images of Epstein's jet and red condom packets with Trump's name and likeness on them with the phrase, "I'm HUUUUGE!"
Zoom in: Wiles in the interview also defended Trump's own inclusion in the Epstein files, saying that the president and Epstein were "young, single playboys together."
- "[Trump] is in the file. And we know he's in the file. And he's not in the file doing anything awful," she said.
- Trump "was on [Epstein's] plane…he's on the manifest," she said.
- "They were, you know, sort of young, single, whatever—I know it's a passé word but sort of young, single playboys together."
Context: As Vanity Fair notes, Trump started dating first lady Melania Trump, then Melania Knauss, sometime in 1998.
- Virginia Giuffre, Epstein's highest-profile accuser, first met Epstein while she was an employee of Trump's Mar-a-Lago spa in 2000.
- Trump and Epstein reportedly fell out in 2004.
What we're watching: The government has until Dec. 19 to release the Epstein files to the public, per a law passed by Congress and a recent court ruling.
April Rubin contributed to reporting.
