Ghislaine Maxwell was welcomed—and even honored—at one of the Clinton Foundation’s most prestigious events as allegations piled up linking her to Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking network, a bombshell report revealed Sunday.
The disgraced socialite and now-convicted sex offender attended the 2013 Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) conference as a guest of merit, CNN reported, years after she was outed in civil lawsuits and the press for her role in Epstein’s abuse of underage girls.
Maxwell, now serving a 20-year sentence in jail for sex trafficking minors, was among those recommended for complimentary access to the conference, an entry that sources say must have been personally approved by Bill or Hillary Clinton, CNN reported.
Video from the event reportedly shows Maxwell, now 63, receiving applause at the CGI’s ocean luncheon, where her now-defunct nonprofit, The TerraMar Project, was recognized for its conservation work.
“It was rare, prestigious and an honor to be acknowledged the way Ghislaine was at the CGI annual meeting,” sources told CNN.
Peculiarly, her recognition came two years after longtime Clinton aide Doug Band had instructed staff in a 2011 internal email to “remove Ghislaine, from all lists” for Clinton-related events amid increased scrutiny of Maxwell and Epstein.
But sources told CNN: ““If Doug Band instructed anyone to bar Maxwell, he didn’t communicate it broadly and didn’t say why.”
When asked about Maxwell’s attendance, a Clinton Foundation spokesperson said the organization had approved more than 600 complimentary admissions for the 2013 event. “The decisions on those comps were made, as they have been historically, at the staff level, which included the office of President Clinton,” the spokesperson told CNN.
A spokesperson for former President Bill Clinton added, “This is about someone working on ocean conservation attending a charitable conference 12 years ago, along with thousands of other people, and nothing more. As we have consistently said, the Clintons know nothing about Jeffrey Epstein’s terrible crimes.”
“The TerraMar Project, along with a dozen more organizations, made Commitments to Action to protect the oceans announced in 2013 at a CGI meeting. These were part of more than 4,000 commitments made since 2005,” the Clinton Foundation person added.
For years, the Clintons have fended off questions regarding their connection to Epstein and Maxwell. Most recently, the couple — alongside a string of other high-profile individuals — was subpoenaed by the House Oversight Committee for information related to Epstein as part of its ongoing investigation into Epstein’s network, with depositions scheduled for October.
Notably, the demands stopped short of President Donald Trump, despite his close friendship with Epstein. Trump, like Clinton, has repeatedly denied knowing about Epstein’s crimes.
Committee chairman James Comer wrote in his letter to Bill Clinton, “By your own admission, you flew on Jeffrey Epstein’s private plane four separate times in 2002 and 2003. “You were also allegedly close to Ms. Ghislane Maxwell, an Epstein co-conspirator, and attended an intimate dinner with her in 2014, three years after public reports about her involvement in Mr. Epstein’s abuse of minors,” the letter added, misspelling Maxwell’s first name.
The Daily Beast has reached out to representatives for the Clintons for comment.
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