Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker says former President Bill Clinton’s memory is fuzzy. The billionaire heir to the Hyatt Hotels fortune and potential Democratic presidential candidate says Clinton was wrong when he told a congressional committee last week that the governor joined him on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s private jet.
Pritzker denied that he ever stepped onto Epstein’s plane, and a timeline of trips he took with Clinton appears to show they traveled together while Epstein was in custody.
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What did Clinton say?
Clinton started his hours-long testimony on Friday with an admission that he’s old and forgets things.
“I have to be honest with you,” he told the House Oversight Committee, which on Monday released testimony of the former president’s testimony. “I’ll be 80 years old if I live to my next birthday. I don’t remember everything that happened 24 years ago. But, I do remember some things, and I will tell you what I remember as best I can.”
Lawmakers were asking Clinton about his work and travel with the Clinton Foundation, the nonprofit he founded after leaving the White House in 2001. It was during that time that Epstein lent Clinton his jet to get around.
“I had people who wanted to help us, wanted to see what we were doing,” Clinton said. “For example, I think … it was on one of these trips, I think, that I had one of my first trips for the man who’s now the governor of Illinois, JB Pritzker, and his wife. They gave me, they helped me get started. It’s all a matter of public record.”
JB Pritzker’s name doesn’t show up in the Epstein files.
Pritzker responds
When asked on Monday about Clinton’s comments, Pritzker was unequivocal.
“Let me be clear,” Pritzker told reporters. “First of all, President Clinton clearly was mistaken, and he corrected the mistake, to his credit. And, no, I have never, had never met Jeffrey Epstein. I was never on Jeffrey Epstein’s plane. I was never on any plane with Jeffrey Epstein, with Ghislaine Maxwell, I never met her.”
He pivoted to another Epstein associate.
“But, you know who did? You know who palled around with both of them? Donald Trump did,” he said. “Donald Trump is known to have spent a lot of time with both of them, and yet, he still hasn’t owned up to it and still hasn’t been held accountable for that.”
Pritzker’s campaign told the Chicago Tribune that the governor was invited to travel with Clinton in 2008 and again in 2013.
Epstein was first arrested in 2006 in connection to alleged child prostitution. He pleaded guilty to two counts of soliciting prostitution in June 2008 and was sentenced to 18 months in jail.
Angel Urena, Clinton’s deputy chief of staff, backed Pritzker’s statements late Monday night. He said Clinton was giving an example of the many people he traveled with to see his foundation’s work.
“Not on Epstein’s plane,” Urena said. “Not with Epstein. Not with Maxwell.”
