Former President Bill Clinton.Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty
A formerVanity Fairreporter is coming toBill Clinton’s defense after an allegation surfaced that the former president once threatened the magazine to kill its exposés onJeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking ring.
A second batch of Epstein-related court documents unsealed Thursday night includes a 2011 email from alleged Epstein victimVirginia Giuffre, in which she wrote to a friend that she was nervous aboutVanity Fair’s handling of her story “considering that B. Clinton walked into VF and threatened them not to write sex-trafficing [sic] articles about his good friend J.E.”
Asked about the email onCNN This Morningon Friday, formerVanity Faircontributing editor Vicky Ward — who was tasked with profiling Epstein for the magazine two decades ago — said she believes Giuffre may have jumbled the details.
“I never heard that that happened," she told CNN’sPhil Mattinglyand Audie Cornish. “What I wonder is if Virginia [Giuffre] is hearing gossip and getting it slightly wrong.”
“When Jeffrey Epstein realized that I was in possession of their allegations,heappeared in the offices ofVanity Fair,” Ward said. “I knew about this because the fact checker who was fact-checking my piece at the time sent me an email saying, ‘Oh my god he’s standing here in the office.’ And I’ve said before the Farmers’ allegations were suddenly cut from the piece that was ultimately published.”
Ward never heard of Clinton taking similar actions to quash her reporting, saying, “I suspect that some version of the story I’ve just told you probably reached its way to [Giuffre] and that might be what she’s referring to.”
Clinton did not object to having this week’s Epstein-related court documents unsealed. In a statement to PEOPLE earlier this week, his spokesperson said “it’s been nearly 20 years since President Clinton last had contact with Epstein.”
source: people.com
