Former President Bill Clinton did visit deep-pocketed perv Jeffrey Epstein’s infamous “Pedophile Island” — despite his camp’s insistence to the contrary, a onetime top advisor says in a blistering new tell-all.
Clinton made the trip in January 2003, one of dozens of times he flew aboard Epstein’s private jet, the “Lolita Express,” former close aide Doug Band claimed in a wide-ranging interview with Vanity Fair.
Band — who rose from Bubba’s body man during his second term in office to the most trusted adviser of his post-presidential life — told the mag that he tried for years to keep Epstein at a distance, but that Clinton just couldn’t stay away.
Though ignorant at the time of Epstein’s sex crimes, Band said he knew the financier was bad news ever since Clinton’s now-infamous 2002 trip aboard Epstein’s so-called Lolita Express.
Photos were unearthed earlier this year of the trip, including a shot of Clinton receiving a neck massage from Chauntae Davies, who later accused Epstein of rape. Clinton has not been accused of any sexual misconduct regarding Epstein’s victims.
Band also recalled for the Vanity Fair piece that Epstein made outlandish boasts during the humanitarian trip, including that he invented the concept of the derivatives trading market.
Band said he encouraged Clinton to sever ties with Epstein after that, but that in early 2003, the former president visited Epstein’s private Caribbean retreat, Little St. James — also known as “Pedophile Island.”
In an unusual move given their close working relationship at the time, Band said he declined to join Clinton on the trip.
The Clinton camp insisted to Vanity Fair that the former president had never set foot on the island and provided “detailed travelogue entries of the period in question that did not contain a visit,” the mag said.
Epstein — who hanged himself in his Lower Manhattan jail cell in August 2019 while awaiting trial — also donated $25,000 to the Clinton Foundation philanthropic group in 2006.
Band said the family also maintained close ties to Maxwell — who is currently awaiting her own trial on charges she groomed underage girls whom she and Epstein would go on to abuse. Maxwell has pleaded not guilty.
Chelsea Clinton, the former president’s only child, maintained a friendship with Maxwell — inviting Maxwell to her 2010 wedding — long after Epstein’s misdeeds were public knowledge, in what Band characterized as a grab at high-society lifestyle.
“Ghislaine had access to yachts and nice homes,” Band told Vanity Fair. “Chelsea needed that.”
A spokesperson for the Clinton family told the magazine that the two were only connected through a mutual friendship with Gateway founder Ted Waitt.
“It wasn’t until 2015 that Chelsea became aware of the horrific allegations against Ghislaine Maxwell and she hopes that all the victims find justice,” the spokesperson said. “Chelsea was friendly with her because of Maxwell’s relationship with a dear friend. When that relationship ended, Chelsea’s relationship with her ended as well.”
In October 2011, as his own relationship with Clinton was rapidly disintegrating, Band orchestrated a campaign to bar Maxwell from all events surrounding the family.
“I knew in telling everyone to stop including Ghislaine that Chelsea and her father would be very angry,” he said. “It made it harder for them to justify being close to her.”
Band’s history with the family dates back to Clinton’s second term in the Oval Office, when he caught on as the president’s body man while studying toward a Georgetown University law degree at night.
After Clinton departed the White House with a bruised reputation in the wake of his sex scandal with intern Monica Lewinsky, Band followed him into his private life, helping him rehab his image and build a philanthropic empire including the Clinton Global Initiative.
But over the years, Clinton and Band’s relationship grew strained, resulting in their ultimately parting ways in 2012.
Speaking out at length in Vanity Fair for the first time since leaving, Band described Clintonworld as “like a cult.”
“It’s hard to get yourself out and difficult to see outside of it. And it’s even harder to understand that when you’re inside,” he told the mag.
In pushing back against the article in its entirety, the Clinton family characterized Band as a bitter ex-staffer who abused the relationship to further his own financial gains.
“No staffer has ever used their role to serve their interests as much as Doug Band,” the statement read. “For many years he was a valuable member of President Clinton’s team and supportive of Clinton Foundation programs. Until he wasn’t. He put the foundation at risk by leveraging a world-class philanthropy for his own financial gain. It’s as disappointing a story as it is a sad one and ultimately why Doug Band and the Clintons parted ways.”
