Trump joins thousands in Epstein conspiracy theory,
US President Donald Trump has joined thousands online in promoting a conspiracy theory on the apparent suicide of Jeffrey Epstein, who was found hanging in his jail cell on Saturday morning.
The unsubstantiated theory points to allegations that Epstein “had information on the Clintons” and as a result, “is now dead.” Conservative comedian Terrence Williams tweeted a video suggesting that Bill and Hillary Clinton are responsible for Epstein’s death and imploring viewers to retweet if they’re “not surprised” by Epstein’s suicide. Trump retweeted the video.
Bill Clinton’s spokesman Angel Ureña tweeted a response that the theory was “ridiculous” and that Trump knows it’s false. White House officials could not be immediately reached for comment.
Epstein, 66, was found hanging in his cell at 6:30 a.m. and paramedics tried unsuccessfully to revive him, federal sources say. He was previously found injured with marks on his neck that appeared to be self-inflicted, but was not on suicide watch when he was found. The Department of Justice and the FBI are currently probing the circumstances of his death, Attorney General William Barr announced.
Virginia Roberts Giuffre – one of Epstein’s accusers who says she was working as a locker room attendant at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort when she was asked to become a “masseuse” for Epstein – testified that he once had a dinner for Bill Clinton on Little St. James, his island off the coast of St. Thomas.
Ureña denied that claim as well, countering that Clinton hasn’t spoken to Epstein in “well over a decade.” He did note, however, that Clinton took four trips on Epstein’s plane to three different continents.
On Saturday, #TrumpBodyCount was trending on Twitter, with over 155,000 tweets by the end of the day. #ClintonBodyCount and #EpsteinMurder also climbed the charts.
The theory was amplified by those within Trump’s administration as well. Lynne Patton, regional administrator at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, posted a headline on Instagram announcing Epstein’s death with the caption “Hillary’d” and hashtag #VinceFosterPartTwo.
Former White House staffer Vince Foster’s suicide by gunshot stirred controversy when right-leaning media suggested that Clinton had him killed in the wake of the “Travelgate” controversy, where several White House travel office employees were fired. Trump previously told The Washington Post that Foster’s death was “very fishy.”
Foster is the most notable death in the “Clinton Body Count,” a list of people connected to the Clintons who died. The list was compiled by attorney and militia movement supporter Linda Thompson and sent to Congressional leadership in 1994 by former Congressman William Dannemeyer.
There is no direct evidence that the Clintons were connected to any of the deaths on the list.
This is not the first time that Trump has propagated political conspiracy theories. The president long held that former president Barack Obama was not an American citizen, and helped spread rumors that Hillary Clinton was suffering from debilitating illness during his 2016 campaign. Also during his campaign, Trump suggested that Sen. Ted Cruz’s father was linked to the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
When Barr announced the investigation into Epstein’s apparent suicide, he said that the death “raises serious questions,” but made no mention of the theory. Many wonder instead how in the Metropolitan Corrections Center in Manhattan, one of the most secure federal prisons in the nation, Epstein could hang himself, especially after an apparent self-harm had temporarily placed him on suicide watch.
“The Federal Bureau of Prisons must provide answers on what systemic failures of the MCC Manhattan or criminal acts allowed this coward to deny justice to his victims,” Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida wrote in a news release.
(The Miami Herald/TNS)