President Trump said Tuesday that he has “no idea” if former President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton were involved in the death of financier Jeffrey Epstein, who died last weekend in an apparent jailhouse suicide.
But Mr. Trump told reporters that he wants a “full investigation” of the accused child sex trafficker’s death, after retweeting a conspiracy theory that blamed the Clintons.
“I want a full investigation, and that’s what I absolutely am demanding,” the president said. “That’s what our our great attorney general is doing.”
Both Mr. Trump and Mr. Clinton were former friends of Epstein. Mr. Trump also questioned how many times Mr. Clinton had visited Epstein’s infamous estate on Little St. James Island, known to locals as “Pedophile Island.”
“That was not a good place, as I understand it, and I was never there,” Mr. Trump said. “You have to ask, did Bill Clinton go to the island? That’s the question. If you find that out, you’re going to know a lot.”
A Clinton spokesman has said that Mr. Clinton never visited the island. But Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s alleged victims, has testified in a civil lawsuit that Epstein once hosted a dinner for Mr. Clinton on the island.
FBI agents raided Little St. James on Monday in their investigation of Epstein’s alleged sex trafficking ring.
Meanwhile, the president defended his furthering a conspiracy theory that the Clintons were involved in the disgraced financier’s suicide because the account he highlighted has over “half a million followers.”
The president sparked controversy over the weekend for retweeting a comment from conservative pundit Terrence K. Williams which included the hashtag “#ClintonBodyCount” — insinuating that the former president and/or his wife was a part of the sex offender’s death.
During an impromptu press gaggle in New Jersey, Mr. Trump doubled down saying Mr. Williams is “highly-respected” and brushed off whether it was “appropriate.”
“He’s a man who has half a million followers. The retweet was from somebody that’s a very respected conservative pundit, so I think it was fine,” he said.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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