Amid news of Jeffrey Epstein’s apparent suicide, US president Donald Trump retweeted baseless conspiracy theories that attempt to link the convicted sex offender’s death with former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Saturday evening.
Terrence K. Williams, whose Twitter bio identifies him as an actor, wrote a tweet with hashtags related to one of the conspiracy theories. The president later shared the post with his followers.
“Died of SUICIDE on 24/7 SUICIDE WATCH ? Yeah right! How does that happen,” Williams wrote. ”#JefferyEpstein had information on Bill Clinton & now he’s dead. I see #TrumpBodyCount trending but we know who did this!”
In a video uploaded with the tweet, Williams goes on to link Epstein’s death to another unsubstantiated conspiracy theory that suggests the Clintons were responsible for the death of White House aide Vince Foster, who died by suicide in 1994.
There is no evidence proving the longstanding conspiracy theory called the “Clinton Body Count,” which tries to link the family to a number of deaths. Snopes, the fact-checking news site, extensively debunked the false claims when they first surfaced.
Trump also retweeted an account named @BreakingNLive that claimed the court documents involving Epstein’s case, which were unsealed this week, showed that Bill Clinton “took private trips to Jeffrey Epstein’s ‘pedophilia island.’”
However, the tweet is misleading.
The court documents, unsealed this week, include flight logs that show Clinton flew on the financier’s private jet a number of times, but the documents do not indicate that Clinton traveled to a “pedophilia island,” nor do they contain the words “pedophilia island”.
However, the court filings do mention that Epstein frequently traveled to the Caribbean. Epstein owned Little St. James Island, which is part of the US Virgin Islands and was nicknamed “pedophile island” by locals, according to the Associated Press. The documents similarly do not indicate that Clinton traveled to Little St. James Island.
The logs also show that Trump has flown on Epstein’s jet.
Both Clinton and Trump have had relationships with Epstein, who was known to be well-connected to powerful people.
Clinton, a longtime associate of Epstein’s, said last month that he did not know anything about the “terrible crimes” that Epstein committed and said they haven’t spoken in “well over a decade.” Also last month, Trump, who has appeared in photos and video with Epstein at events and parties, said that he had a “falling out” with Epstein and was “not a fan of his.”
A Trump official, Lynne Patton, a regional administrator for the department of housing and urban development, also shared an unfounded conspiracy theory after Epstein’s death.
In an Instagram post, Patton suggested that Epstein was “Hillary’d,” implying — with no proof — that Hillary Clinton was responsible for his death.
Before Patton was assigned to work in the administration, she worked closely with the Trump family, planning events, including Eric Trump’s wedding, and eventually becoming the Trump family’s chief of staff.