Fox News host’s false claim on Epstein flights ignites wider scrutiny as Clinton testimony unfolds

viewers were confronted with a high-profile on-air inaccuracy when host Kayleigh McEnany, a former first-term White House press secretary for Donald Trump, wrongly asserted that Trump was never on Jeffrey Epstein’s private jet. The misstatement landed amid questioning about Bill Clinton’s House oversight committee testimony and has amplified attention on flight records, photographs, and long-standing ties linking Epstein to prominent figures.

host Kayleigh McEnany’s on-air error and immediate context

McEnany’s incorrect claim came during a televised discussion of Bill Clinton’s testimony to the House oversight committee. She argued that Donald Trump had not been on Epstein’s plane and contrasted that — inaccurately — with Clinton, whom she suggested had been aboard “17 times, 27 times. ” The exchange followed a call by Marie Harf for multiple public figures to be deposed, including Larry Summers, Bill Gates and Donald Trump, as Harf outlined why Trump should be asked about Epstein’s crimes from the period the two men were acquaintances.

Flight records, emails and what they show about Trump and Epstein

Files made public by the justice department include a 2020 email exchange, released in December, in which a federal prosecutor said flight records showed Donald Trump traveled on Epstein’s private jet many more times than had been previously reported or understood. The prosecutor noted Trump was listed as a passenger on at least eight flights between 1993 and 1996, including at least four flights on which Ghislaine Maxwell was also present.

The same material records that on one 1993 flight the only listed passengers were Epstein and Trump, and on another 1993 flight the only three listed passengers were Epstein, Trump and a then-20-year-old whose name has been withheld by the justice department. On two other flights two of the passengers were women later identified as possible witnesses in a Maxwell case. Those details directly contradict McEnany’s on-air claim and have driven renewed scrutiny.

Photographs, named individuals and further connections

Documents and exchanges in the files include an email in which Epstein boasted to a reporter that he had “given” a woman he dated in 1993 to Trump two years later, and shared photos. The woman named in later material is 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 name of the 20-year-old who traveled with Epstein and Trump on one 1993 flight has been withheld. Ghislaine Maxwell was later tried and convicted in 2021. The 2020 prosecutor email also noted Trump had traveled with Marla Maples and his children Tiffany and Eric on some of the listed flights.

Bill Clinton’s testimony, his account and historical context

Bill Clinton testified before the House oversight committee and said he had "no idea" about Epstein’s crimes. The committee hearing covered Clinton’s past interactions with Epstein; files released by the justice department last year show Clinton flew on Epstein’s plane multiple times in the early 2000s after leaving office. Clinton has maintained he was an acquaintance who stopped communicating with Epstein at least a decade before Epstein’s 2019 arrest on federal sex-trafficking charges, and has said his brief acquaintance ended years before Epstein’s crimes came to light.

The publicly available files include an accounting that places Clinton on Epstein’s plane 26 times during six trips between February 2002 and November 2003. Clinton told lawmakers he would often say “I don’t recall” about distant interactions and described that posture as potentially unsatisfying. He also referenced his wife’s recent six-hour-plus committee appearance and said it was “simply not right” she was brought in.

Political reactions, Trump’s remarks, and rare presidential appearances before Congress

Donald Trump weighed in on Clinton’s deposition, saying he did not like seeing Clinton deposed and that lawmakers had gone after him more. Kristen Holmes relayed comments from Trump praising commerce secretary Howard Lutnick — whom Trump described as a “very innocent guy” with ties to Epstein and “doing a great job, ” and saying he "would go in and do whatever he has to say. " Howard Lutnick’s ties to Epstein have drawn scrutiny, including after a new photo surfaced showing him with Epstein.

Clinton’s appearance was noted as a rarity: sitting and former presidents have only rarely appeared before congressional panels. Gerald Ford is identified in Senate compilations as the last former president to appear before a congressional committee, speaking in 1983 to a Senate subcommittee on the US constitution around the time of the bicentennial of the constitution. Harry Truman spoke to a Senate committee on foreign relations in 1955 about the United Nations charter. Ford was also the last sitting president to voluntarily appear before Congress, in 1974, when he spoke to a House subcommittee about the pardon of Richard Nixon.

Network language on other major breaking stories and shifting presidential posture

Separately, network coverage of a U. S. mission and preemptive strikes on Iran used the word “brazen” to describe the attack on Tehran, including a live blog noting that a U. S. official said Israel was targeting Iranian leadership while the U. S. targeted military sites and ballistic missile facilities that posed an “imminent threat. ” Commentary framed the decision to proceed with Operation Epic Fury as potentially at odds with the president’s earlier public stance against new wars. The president acknowledged that Americans would likely die in the conflict and used stark language telling members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard and other security forces to lay down arms or face “certain death. ”

Observers pointed to years of the president’s past statements arguing that a military attack on Iran would reflect a failure of diplomacy and citing prior claims that another president would use military action for political advantage. The coverage noted that the president had campaigned on a “no new wars” message during his 2024 run, and that his present rhetoric represents a marked shift; it also highlighted commentary that his poll numbers were hitting record lows with pressure mounting ahead of the November midterms.

In an excerpt from his 2025 memoir, the former Norwegian prime minister Jens Stoltenberg wrote about first meeting Donald Trump in 2017; the provided context cuts off and the remainder is unclear in the provided context.