Fox News host and former Trump aide falsely claims president was never on Epstein’s plane – as it happened (fox news)

On Friday, host Kayleigh McEnany, who served as Donald Trump’s first-term White House press secretary, told viewers that Trump was never on Jeffrey Epstein’s private jet. That on-air claim was false: public justice department files and internal prosecutor emails show Trump traveled on Epstein’s plane multiple times and that Bill Clinton also flew on the jet on numerous occasions.

host's on-air claim

Kayleigh McEnany jumped into a live discussion of Bill Clinton’s testimony to the House oversight committee to defend her former boss and said, "I would note that Donald Trump was not on the plane. " McEnany added that putting Trump in the same pool as Bill Clinton, "who was on the plane I think it was 17 times, 27 times, " would be unfair. The statement was incorrect: the public justice department files and related documents contradict her claim.

Flight records and prosecutor emails

Files made public by the justice department show Bill Clinton flew on Epstein’s plane 26 times during six trips between February 2002 and November 2003. A 2020 email exchange, which was made public in December, quoted a federal prosecutor writing that "the flight records we received yesterday reflect that Donald Trump traveled on Epstein’s private jet many more times than previously has been reported (or that we were aware), including during the period we would expect to charge in a Maxwell case. "

The prosecutor wrote that Trump "is listed as a passenger on at least eight flights between 1993 and 1996, including at least four flights on which Maxwell was also present. " The prosecutor added that Trump "is listed as having traveled with, among others and at various times, Marla Maples, his daughter Tiffany, and his son Eric. "

That same prosecutor in Manhattan noted: "On one flight in 1993, he and Epstein are the only two listed passengers; on another, the only three passengers are Epstein, Trump, and then-20-year-old [name redacted]. " The prosecutor also wrote that "on two other flights, two of the passengers, respectively, were women who would be possible witnesses in a Maxwell case. " The justice department withheld the name of the then-20-year-old.

Clinton testimony and his remarks

Bill Clinton told the House oversight committee that he had "no idea" about Epstein’s crimes and said in opening remarks that "the girls and women whose lives Jeffrey Epstein destroyed deserve not only justice, but healing. " He said his acquaintance with Epstein was "brief" and that it ended "years before his crimes came to light, " adding he never witnessed "what was truly going on. " Clinton said he would "often" answer "I don't recall" because the interactions were long ago, a response he acknowledged might be "unsatisfying" to lawmakers. Clinton also referenced his wife Hillary Clinton’s six-hour-plus questioning the previous day and said it was "simply not right" that she was brought in.

The former president has maintained he was an acquaintance of Epstein’s, flew on Epstein’s plane several times in the early 2000s after he left office, and said he severed ties in the mid-2000s, several years before Epstein’s 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor. A reminder in the files is that Clinton is not accused of wrongdoing related to Epstein and appearing in the documents is not itself evidence of misconduct.

Calls to depose others

During the discussion, Marie Harf, a former State Department spokesperson in the previous administration, said: "I want everyone who’s mentioned multiple times here to be deposed, " listing "Larry Summers, Bill Gates and, you’re all probably going to yell at me, Donald Trump. " Harf elaborated that she thought Trump should be required to testify about alleged crimes Epstein committed during the nearly two decades the two men were friends.

Donald Trump himself weighed in on Clinton’s appearance before the committee, saying: "I don’t like seeing him deposed. But they certainly went after me more than that. " The president also defended commerce secretary Howard Lutnick, who has ties with Epstein, saying he was a "very innocent guy" who is "doing a great job" and that he "would go in and do whatever he has to say. " Separately, scrutiny of Howard Lutnick increased as a new photo showed him with Epstein.

Photographs, dates and other details

Documents include an email in which Epstein boasted he had "gave" a woman he dated in 1993 to Trump two years later and sent photos of her; the woman was identified in those materials as the Norwegian cosmetics heiress Celina Midelfart, who was born in 1973 and dated Trump in the late 1990s. Midelfart was photographed with Epstein at Mar-a-Lago on 22 February 1997, the same night a now-famous photograph was taken of Trump with his hand on Epstein’s shoulder.

The files also record that Ghislaine Maxwell was tried and convicted in 2021. The 2020 internal email exchange and the redacted 1993 passenger list are part of the tranche of millions of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein released by the justice department last year.

In an excerpt from his 2025 memoir, the former Norwegian prime minister Jens Stoltenberg wrote about meeting Trump in 2017, but the passage in the provided context is incomplete and unclear in the provided context.

Related international and historical notes

Separately, commentary on recent military action described a preemptive strike on Tehran as "brazen, " with the dictionary definition of "brazen" noted as acting in a shocking, shameless, or impudent way. A public line in live coverage stated that a U. S. official said Israel was targeting Iranian leadership in its "brazen morning attack, " while the U. S. was focusing on military targets and ballistic missile sites that pose an "imminent threat. " The decision to go ahead with Operation Epic Fury was described as potentially "brazen. "

On Saturday morning the president acknowledged that Americans will likely die in this war, and as the strikes were announced he said to members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard and others: "lay down your arms, or you will face certain death. "

For years Donald Trump had publicly warned that a president would start a war with Iran to appear tough, saying in November 2011 that "Our president will start a war with Iran because he has absolutely no ability to negotiate, " and repeating similar warnings over time in statements through 2013 and later. During his 2024 presidential run he campaigned on a message of "no new wars. "

Gerald Ford is recorded as the last former president to appear before a congressional committee, speaking in 1983 to a Senate subcommittee on the US constitution around the bicentennial, and Harry Truman previously appeared in 1955 to talk to a Senate committee on foreign relations about the UN charter. Ford was also the last sitting president to appear before Congress, voluntarily testifying to a House subcommittee in 1974 about his rationale for pardoning Richard Nixon.

All of the above details appear in the public documents, emails and testimony that were part of the recent coverage of Epstein-related material and the House oversight committee proceedings.