Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker never flew with former President Bill Clinton on a plane belonging to Jeffrey Epstein, the two-term Democrat told reporters Tuesday, hours after video of Clinton’s testimony before a House committee was released in which the former president suggested the pair had traveled with the financier before he was convicted of sex crimes.
Appearing before the House Oversight Committee behind closed doors on Friday, Clinton was asked about his use of Epstein’s private plane in the early 2000s, after the president had left office and while he was establishing the Clinton Foundation charitable group. Clinton told members of the committee that he never traveled alone on the plane, according to video of the sworn testimony, which lasted more than 4 1/2 hours and was released Monday.
“I had the Secret Service with me, and then, on occasion, I had people who had volunteered to help us and 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 my first trip for the man who’s now the governor of Illinois, JB Pritzker, and his wife. They gave me — they helped me get started. All a matter of public record.”
Pritzker, responding to questions about the testimony at an unrelated event in Chicago, said the former president “clearly was mistaken, and he corrected the mistake, to his credit.” A Clinton spokesman indeed said on social media late Monday that Pritzker’s trips with the former president were never with Epstein or on his plane. In addition, Pritzker’s name does not appear in the flight logs for Epstein’s airplane, which have been released publicly.
Clinton’s last flight on Epstein’s aircraft, one which he traveled with Epstein and accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell on foundation-related trips, was in 2003, according to testimony and the flight logs. Pritzker’s trips with Clinton came years later, according to a spokesman for Pritzker’s campaign and the Clinton spokesman.
“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 or with Ghislaine Maxwell. Never met her,” Pritzker said, before pivoting to criticism of President Donald Trump, whose name appears frequently throughout the publicly released Epstein files.
“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 said.
Before being elected governor in 2018, Pritzker took two trips with Clinton, one in 2008 and another in 2013, Pritzker campaign spokesman Alex Gough said in a statement late Monday. “Neither utilized Jefferey Epstein’s aircraft, nor was he accompanied by that man or Ghislaine Maxwell,” Gough said.
For the 2008 Clinton Foundation trip to Rwanda and other countries in sub-Saharan Africa, the group, which also included former first daughter Chelsea Clinton and actor Ted Danson, traveled on a plane provided by Google, Pritzker said.
“I was on that trip to learn more and look at areas where I had or could support the health care systems in those countries,” Pritzker said.
Pritzker said he did not recall whose plane was used for the 2013 trip but had “tripled-checked” that the aircraft was not owned by Epstein.
The governor’s campaign later Tuesday said Pritzker and Clinton took a personal trip together in April 2013 on a private plane chartered by the former president’s staff. The trip departed from Westchester County, New York, and made stops in Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and Mumbai, India, with a refueling stop in Helsinki, according to the Pritzker campaign.
While a lack of clarity in Clinton’s statement during the deposition and a lack of follow-up questions from committee members caused the confusion, Gough shifted the focus to members of the rival party after the Republican National Committee and figures in the Illinois GOP circulated clips of the testimony on social media.
“We understand that the GOP is desperate to deflect from the heinous accusations against President Trump in the Epstein Files, but this is a particularly weak effort to assign blame where there is none,” Gough said.
Pritzker is a longtime ally of the Clintons, having been a major backer of Hillary Clinton’s two presidential campaigns, including her 2008 primary race against hometown favorite Barack Obama.
The Clinton spokesman backed up the Pritzker campaign’s timeline of Pritzker and Bill Clinton’s joint travels in a social media post.
“President Clinton was simply giving an example of the many people he traveled with to see the Clinton Foundation’s work,” Angel Ureña, Clinton’s deputy chief of staff, wrote in a post on X. That post also reshared the RNC’s initial post, which included Clinton’s comments from the testimony video. “Governor Pritzker joined a Clinton Foundation trip in 2008.”
“Not on Epstein’s plane. Not with Epstein. Not with Maxwell.”
Still, that didn’t stop Illinois Republicans, including several of those running for the chance to challenge Pritzker in November, from latching on.
“Bottom Line: JB Pritzker has A LOT of questions to answer about his own ties to Jeffrey Epstein,” the Illinois GOP said in an emailed statement that went out shortly before the governor took questions from reporters.
Former state lawmaker Darren Bailey called for an “independent review,” and said flight logs should be checked, even though they have been publicly released and don’t show Pritzker’s name.
DuPage County Sheriff and GOP governor candidate James Mendrick said in a social media post that “silence is not acceptable.”
And Rick Heidner, a video gambling magnate with a controversial past who is running for the party’s nomination for governor in the March 17 GOP primary, also used the Clinton testimony to attack his would-be general election opponent.
“JB Pritzker has officially been named in the Epstein deposition by Bill Clinton,” Heidner wrote in a social media post. “I said that his cousin might have a problem because of Epstein. Now it looks like JB could be having problems with it too.”
Heidner was referring to Pritzker’s cousin Thomas Pritzker.
Thomas Pritzker last month announced he was stepping down as executive chair of Hyatt Hotels because of his “association with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell which I deeply regret.”
The publicly released Epstein files show Thomas Pritzker was in regular contact with Epstein even after the financier pleaded guilty in Florida in 2008 to charges including soliciting prostitution from a minor.
JB Pritzker has said he isn’t close with his cousin, who was among the next generation of Pritzkers whom patriarch Jay Pritzker tapped to lead Hyatt and other family interests after his death.
The succession plan, which also named the governor’s sister, Penny Pritzker, and Jay Pritzker’s younger cousin Nick to help lead, precipitated an acrimonious breakup of the Pritzker family fortune in the early 2000s.
