(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell told the Justice Department last month that she and her accomplice, Jeffrey Epstein, helped start the Clinton Global Initiative—the conduit allegedly used by Hillary Clinton to trade political favors for monetary donations.
Maxwell revealed Epstein’s ties to the Clinton Foundation when asked whether he had business ties with the former president, Bill Clinton.
“I was part of the beginning process of the Clinton Global Initiative. And that was something that I helped with and that was me, and Epstein may have helped me help them. And in that context, he may well have involved himself, but only in the context of something that I was trying to do,” she told prosecutors, according to newly released interview transcripts.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche then asked whether Epstein donated to the foundation, and Maxwell said she believes he had.
We now have both Ghislaine Maxwell AND Jeffrey Epstein's lawyers directly telling the Justice Department they helped set up the Clinton Global Initiative. https://t.co/20BWhdNULk pic.twitter.com/yfpYhBXvyH
— Mike Benz (@MikeBenzCyber) August 22, 2025
“I think he did do that. And that, I believe, the money that he may have given could have been independent of me.”
Maxwell also suggested that she came up with the idea to start the Clinton Foundation. She said she thought the Bill should “have his own Davos”—a reference to the World Economic Forum, which draws in elite businessmen and politicians for an annual conference. Maxwell said she was “central” to helping launch the project.
Maxwell also said in the interview that she—not Epstein—was friends with the Clintons first. She added that she never witnessed the former president commit any wrongdoing—a similar statement she made about President Donald Trump.
Maxwell was interviewed in late July as part of a purported DOJ effort to shine more light on the Epstein scandal—though the DOJ has yet to release thousands of documents about the FBI’s criminal investigation of him.
The Clinton Foundation has also been in the news in recent weeks. A new document released by the FBI shows that agents apparently had a strong criminal case against the group in the mid-2010s—but top officials shut down the investigation in the leadup to the 2016 election.
Indeed, the FBI had an informant who “possibly” had information about the Clinton Foundation, the newly released FBI memo said. The informant’s info made it all the way up to then-Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, who reiterated that no further steps should be taken without his approval.
Weeks later, the DOJ became more adamant about stifling the investigation. Then-Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates ordered the Eastern District of Arkansas to “shut it down” entirely. The memo doesn’t explain the reason for Yates’s decision.
The DOJ was against the investigation, despite the fact that the FBI had a cooperating witness who recorded conversations with someone associated with the Clinton Foundation, according to the newly released FBI memo.
Wow though — the FBI didn't just have informants giving tips. It had a cooperating witness who recorded conversations with a Clinton Foundation associate.
Release the recordings!!! https://t.co/oxep4hkUkw pic.twitter.com/UyHYJku2Ve— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) August 14, 2025
After Trump won in stunning fashion, agents started worrying that the statute of limitations was approaching. Still, nothing happened. Trump did say that he wouldn’t be pursuing charges against Clinton.
Some eight years later, the second Trump administration is reportedly investigating whether the Obama administration conspired to tilt the election towards Clinton in 2016.
Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
