Ghislaine Maxwell and Bill Clinton’s ‘Close’ Relationship: They ‘Got Along Terribly Well’
Former Bill Clinton has faced scrutiny over his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein in recent weeks, as he testified on his ties to Epstein in a deposition before members of the House in late February.
But perhaps his relationship with Ghislaine Maxwell should be drawing just as much — if not more — attention.
By several accounts, the two were “close” friends. And, according to both Maxwell and Clinton themselves, Clinton was closer to Maxwell than Epstein. (RELATED: Clinton’s Excuse: He Thought the Young Women on Epstein’s Plane Were Flight Attendants)
In a 2025 meeting with Department of Justice officials, Maxwell said, “President Clinton was my friend, not Epstein’s friend.”
She went on to describe the nature of her relationship with the former president: “President Clinton liked me, and we got along terribly well. But I never saw that warmth with Mr. Epstein.” (RELATED: Bill Clinton Has Much to Answer for on Epstein)
Maxwell also waxed poetic about Clinton, calling him “truly extraordinary” and a “fantastic ex-president.”
“It lasted longer and was more extensive than my relationship with Mr. Epstein.”
In his February deposition, Clinton said of his relationship with Maxwell, “It lasted longer and was more extensive than my relationship with Mr. Epstein.”
At first blush, this closer relationship with Maxwell might seem to be a better look for Clinton. Maxwell has, after all, often been relegated to the sidelines as simply Epstein’s female assistant.
But the allegations against Maxwell are truly sickening. They include the serial sex trafficking of minor girls as well as sexual abuse by Maxwell herself.
Maria Farmer has accused Maxwell of sexually assaulting her at billionaire Leslie Wexner’s mansion and molesting her sister, age 15, on a massage table. Virginia Giuffre has likewise accused Maxwell of sexually abusing her when she was a teenager in abuse sessions that included Epstein. Another woman has alleged that she was repeatedly sexually assaulted by Maxwell, alongside Epstein, when she was a teenager, after she was recruited by Maxwell and Epstein at the Interlochen Center for the Arts.
At Maxwell’s sentencing for a conviction of child sex trafficking, the judge stated that evidence showed that Maxwell herself had abused girls. He said, “[T]he trial evidence established that Ms. Maxwell was instrumental in the abuse of several underage girls and that she herself participated in some of the abuse.”
Clinton was close friends with a woman deeply entrenched in the serial sexual abuse and trafficking of children and adult women. That is, he was close friends — for more than a decade — with an absolute monster. The fact that Maxwell still lives in Epstein’s shadow does much to obscure this.
Clinton kept up his relationship with Maxwell after she was publicly accused of sexually abusing and trafficking a teenager. He was reportedly warned to cease his relationship with Maxwell, and yet he chose to continue publicly associating with her. Their relationship continued to such an extent that the Clinton Foundation celebrated Maxwell’s work as a supposed ocean conservationist and invited her to multiple events.
Here’s the timeline. In 2009, Virginia Giuffre filed a lawsuit claiming that Maxwell had recruited, groomed, and sexually abused her. The claim was reported in the media.
In September 2009, while Maxwell was leaving a Clinton Global Initiative conference, she was served with a subpoena in a lawsuit filed by 24 underage girls against Epstein. The serving was publicly reported.
In 2010, Maxwell had a front-row seat at Chelsea Clinton’s wedding. Maxwell also hosted Chelsea on her boyfriend’s private yacht, demonstrating the Clinton family’s continued closeness with her at this time.
In 2013, Maxwell was an honored guest at a Clinton Global Initiative event, at which it was announced that her nonprofit, the TerraMar Project, had “committed to launch the Sustainable Oceans Alliance.”
Then, on Feb. 27, 2014, Bill Clinton invited Ghislaine Maxwell to a small, private dinner at an upscale vegan restaurant in Los Angeles, Crossroads Kitchen.
At this time, Maxwell’s involvement in Epstein’s crimes was being widely reported. For instance, the Telegraph reported in June 2014: “Some of the girls were introduced to him by Ghislaine Maxwell, his friend and the daughter of the late media tycoon Robert Maxwell, who allegedly told them they should give him a massage.”
Apparently, several people in Clinton’s orbit tried to stop him from inviting Maxwell to the private dinner due to the allegations against her. The Daily Beast has reported, “Multiple sources with knowledge of the situation say aides had squabbled over Maxwell’s invitation beforehand due to her links to Epstein.”
These sources, reported the Daily Beast, said that longtime Clinton gatekeeper Doug Band had sought to remove Maxwell from Clinton’s orbit in 2011 due to the sexual abuse and trafficking allegations against her. The New York Times has separately reported that Band sent an email to another Clinton aide in 2011 asking him to “remove” Maxwell “from all lists.” The Daily Mail, the Times noted, had that year referred to Maxwell as “Epstein’s Girl Friday ‘Fixer.’”
In 2020, Band told Vanity Fair that he knew his effort to exclude Maxwell would upset both Chelsea and Bill Clinton because they were both quite close to her, despite the allegations against her.
“I knew in telling everyone to stop including Ghislaine that Chelsea and her father would be very angry. It made it harder for them to justify being close to her,” Band said.
Plus, Band said, Chelsea Clinton wanted to benefit from the perks that came with Maxwell’s status in high society. “Ghislaine had access to yachts and nice homes,” said Band. “Chelsea needed that.”
For their parts, Chelsea and Bill have denied that they knew about the allegations against Maxwell while they continued associating with her. A spokesperson for the Clinton family told Vanity Fair, “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.” During his deposition, when Bill was asked when he first knew about the allegations against Maxwell, he said, “When the first evidence came out, when was it, in 2019?”
In emails released in the Epstein files, Band is documented to have flirted back and forth with Maxwell before he tried to exile her from Clinton circles. These flirtatious emails are from 2002.
But there is one flirtatious email from Maxwell where the addressee’s identity is unknown. Axios has reported that Maxwell sent this email to an address associated with Bill Clinton that has the initials “WJC” in it: “Sorry to hear that the Belzburg stuff is bad … I could not help myself — there was one juicy little tit bit I did let out — The one about what a supper stud you are and how I have a crush on you and how you are hung like a horse and — well you get the picture. Hope you don’t mind.” Clinton has said that he himself does not answer emails directly, and much of his correspondence goes through aides, so who this email was addressed to is unclear, but the email address has been interpreted as belonging to Clinton, said Axios.
The reference to the “Belzburg stuff” could have to do with Bill Clinton’s relationship with New York socialite Lisa Belzberg, Axios explained. In 2002, a photograph was published by Newsweek showing Clinton and Belzberg in an “intimate pose” at her home. [I]nsiders say that it is Mr Clinton, closer to home, who has won the heart of the ice-cool blonde,” a tabloid reported at the time. (RELATED: Hot Tub Bill From Hot Springs)
In 2012, Band and Clinton, who were extremely close and had a father-son–like relationship, had a major split and parted ways.
Band told Vanity Fair that the final blow during their decisive fight came when Band said that “If Clinton wanted to have girlfriends, he should divorce Hillary and move on with his life.”
Before allegations came out publicly about Epstein, Bill Clinton had a very close relationship with Ghislaine Maxwell. He flew around the world with her on four separate trips. He attended the king of Morocco’s wedding by her side. Maxwell has claimed she was “very central” in setting up the Clinton Global Initiative, and in fact, it has been claimed that she and Clinton came up with the idea for it together. Richard Attias, who was a top executive at a company, Publicis, involved in starting the Clinton Global Initiative, told the New York Times, “She was in Davos with President Clinton, and this is when they realized the amazing impact of Davos and they came up with the idea of creating something similar, but with a different philosophy.” Maxwell was the person who coordinated the $1 million payment to Publicis for its work on “the Clinton project,” per emails released in the Epstein files.
In his deposition last month, Clinton described just how devastated he was when he heard about the allegations against his old friend Ghislaine.
“This thing was really hard for me when it came out because I, you know, we had been friendly with Ghislaine,” he said. “I was sad, but it had — it was terrible what she did, and she has to be punished.”
Bill Clinton and Ghislaine Maxwell were partners in philanthropy, family friends, and friends who “got along terribly well.” And, if Ghislaine Maxwell’s email to the “WJC” account was intended for Clinton as opposed to one of his aides, she at least saw their relationship as being more than friends.
Yet Clinton claims that in their many years of closeness, he had no idea of the monster Maxwell was, and how she was deeply entrenched in the systematic trafficking and abuse of girls. When Clinton traveled with Maxwell and Epstein on their world-touring trips, and was surrounded by young women, some of whom were being trafficked, he just had no clue, he says, what was going on.
It is hard to believe that Clinton could have been so close with Maxwell for so long and not have had an inkling of the evil she was up to.
READ MORE:
Clinton’s Excuse: He Thought the Young Women on Epstein’s Plane Were Flight Attendants