Fact Check: Why This Video Doesn't Convey Bill Clinton's Nefarious Ties to Jeffrey Epstein

Claim:

A video shared online in January 2024 accurately showed former U.S. President Bill Clinton greeting medical workers outside of a hospital in an attempt to distract the news media from his connections to the late Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex offender.

Rating:

On Jan. 2, 2024, a video was posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, showing former U.S. President Bill Clinton shaking hands with hospital workers. The account simply captioned the video, "Bill?"

(X user @malachimaxeyusa)

While the video itself appeared rather innocent, the replies to the tweet and other reposts of the same video revealed that viewers thought it was theoretically showing Clinton engaging in some sort of public relations campaign to distract the news media and general population from his ties to the late, disgraced financier and sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein. As one repost put it, Clinton was engaging in a "Harvey Weinstein fake hurt scam." Epstein was back in the news after a judge ordered documents unsealed in a lawsuit filed against his associate/partner in crime, Ghislaine Maxwell.

The video was real, but the insinuations about it were false.

Snopes found the same moment shown in the X clip in a video on CNN Politics. In that video, which was posted on Oct. 17, 2021, Clinton walked out of a California hospital after being treated for an infection. We cross-checked that CNN clip with an Al Jazeera article documenting the same event. Because the video is real, but the context around it is verifiably false, we have rated this claim as "Miscaptioned."

Clinton has been the frequent subject of claims spread online connecting him to Epstein and Maxwell.

Among the claims was a video of Hillary Clinton supposedly threatening to assassinate anyone who connected her husband with Epstein (false) or photos of Epstein with the former president (true). A 2019 article from The New York Times uncovered more details about the connections between the two men.

Sources:

“Bill Clinton Released from Hospital after Urological Infection.” Al Jazeera, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/10/17/bill-clinton-released-from-southern-california-hospital. Accessed 3 Jan. 2024.

Evon, Dan. “Is This Bill Clinton with Jeffrey Epstein?” Snopes, 22 July 2019, https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/bill-clinton-with-jeffrey-epstein/.

Gold, Michael. “Bill Clinton and Jeffrey Epstein: How Are They Connected?” The New York Times, 9 July 2019. NYTimes.com, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/09/nyregion/bill-clinton-jeffrey-epstein.html.

“Https://Twitter.Com/Malachimaxeyusa/Status/1742339146922836443.” X (Formerly Twitter), https://twitter.com/malachimaxeyusa/status/1742339146922836443. Accessed 3 Jan. 2024.

“Https://Twitter.Com/Rob1865_/Status/1742360847672860716.” X (Formerly Twitter), https://twitter.com/Rob1865_/status/1742360847672860716. Accessed 3 Jan. 2024.

Liles, Jordan. “Did Hillary Clinton Threaten Epstein Accusers with a ‘Hit Man’?” Snopes, 12 Dec. 2023, https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/clinton-epstein-climate-change/.

Video: Bill Clinton Walks out of Hospital after Treatment for Infection - CNN Video. edition.cnn.com, https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2021/10/17/bill-clinton-leaves-hospital-sot-rs-vpx.cnn. Accessed 3 Jan. 2024.