CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig on Monday said former President Bill Clinton “can’t hide” from the photos released last week by the Justice Department — which show him swimming with an unidentified woman and convicted child sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell.
Clinton appeared in numerous images alongside Maxwell and her late former accomplice Jeffrey Epstein, whose suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges fueled theories of a “client list,” raising questions about Clinton.
“However, what the Department of Justice has released so far, and the manner in which it did so, makes one thing clear: someone or something is being protected,” wrote Angel Ureña, a spokesman for Clinton, on social media Monday. “We do not know whom, what or why.”
He continued, “But we do know this: We need no such protection.”
Honig appeared later on CNN’s “The Source” to discuss the confident response. He reacted bluntly when asked if the Justice Department is capable of “immediately” releasing any remaining images of Clinton they might have — as the statement Monday demanded.
“I’m not about to vouch for DOJ’s competency at this point, but I did find the statement from the Clinton camp to be fairly unconvincing,” Honig told guest host Kasie Hunt. “I mean, OK, if they want to see other documents come out, fine.”
He continued, “I want to see what those documents are going to say about the photographs we all saw of Bill Clinton, Ghislaine Maxwell and a woman whose identity is blacked out in a pool at night. I mean, what is Bill Clinton going to say about that?”
Epstein died behind bars in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges. His death, which was ruled a suicide, and his known ties to powerful people fueled theories of a “client list.” Trump later began decrying the Epstein case as a Democratic “hoax.”
The DOJ was ultimately compelled last month by Congress to make all of its Epstein records public within 30 days as a result of the new Epstein Files Transparency Act, leading to a fraction being released in recent days that included the images of Clinton.
“We’ve all seen the photograph of Bill Clinton in a hot tub with, again, a woman whose identity was blacked out and saying, ‘Well, DOJ is covering,’ suggesting [the] DOJ is covering for Trump,” Honig said Monday. “Maybe. Maybe not. We don’t know that for sure.”
He continued, “But I don’t find that at all even beginning to address the many serious questions that have risen around Bill Clinton. There’s no evidence, specifically, that he committed a crime — but he can’t hide from what’s in those photos.”
When asked how much “plausible deniability” Clinton might have regarding potential knowledge of Epstein and Maxwell’s crimes at the time that the photos were taken, Honig noted this is “exactly the problem” with the manner in which the files are being released.
“We don’t know exactly [when] they were taken,” said Honig. “Very importantly, we don’t know where they were taken, and the timing is so important here, Kasie, because to me, there’s a really key cutoff that happens in 2007, 2008.”
Honig noted that Epstein was being federally prosecuted in Florida at the time for soliciting an underage girl for prostitution, only to receive a “ridiculously, inexcusably soft” plea deal with the help of then-U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta, who later became Trump’s labor secretary.
Epstein was sentenced to 18 months, but was allowed to go to work six days per week, for up to 12 hours a day, and was released five months early in 2009. Honig said in conclusion that it thus makes a very serious difference when exactly the Clinton photos were taken.
He told Hunt, “So people who are still cavorting with Jeffrey Epstein after that [criminal charge and conviction], after 2007, 2008, I think have a very different set of questions to answer than people who cut him off before 2007, 2008.”
