FACT CHECK: Does This Image Show Bill Gates And Hillary Clinton On Jeffrey Epstein’s Island In 2002?

Conservative News DailyOctober 20, 2021

An image shared on Twitter claims to show “Bill and Hillary Clinton pictured on Jeffrey Epstein’s private island, 2002.”

Bill and Hillary Clinton pictured on Jeffrey Epstein’s private island, 2002 pic.twitter.com/ZU3d7Eo3jE

— Bill Clinton (@joeycicer0) October 15, 2021

Verdict: False

The image shows Bill Gates and his stepmother arriving in New York in 2021, not at Epstein’s island in 2002.

Fact Check:

Epstein allegedly trafficked and sexually abused women and underage girls on Little St. James, his private Caribbean island, according to a lawsuit filed by U.S. Virgin Islands Attorney General Denise George in January 2020. Recently, social media users have been sharing an image that purportedly shows “Bill and Hillary Clinton pictured on Jeffrey Epstein’s private island, 2002.”

The photo, traced through a reverse image search, actually shows Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, arriving in New York for his daughter’s wedding on Oct. 14. The picture was published by numerous news outlets including People, Fox Business and Page Six. The woman in the image is not Hillary Clinton, but rather Bill Gates’ stepmother Mimi Gardner Gates, who garnered some media attention for the hat she wore, the New York Post reported.

“Bill Gates and his stepmother, Mimi Gardner Gates, arrived in New York for his eldest daughter’s upcoming wedding — with Gardner Gates beaming under a quirky hat,” reads the caption of a nearly identical image published in the New York Post. Fox Business likewise identified the woman as Mimi Gardner Gates. (RELATED: Did Bill Gates Visit Jeffrey Epstein’s Private Island At Least 17 Times?)

Bill Gates and Epstein did meet on several occasions beginning in 2011, according to The New York Times. At the time of these meetings, Epstein had already been convicted of sex offenses, the outlet reported. Former President Bill Clinton, the husband of Hillary Clinton, flew on Epstein’s private plane on several occasions in 2002 and 2003, according to a statement Bill Clinton released in 2019.