White House Chief of Staff Says Trump 'Was Wrong' About Bill Clinton Visiting Epstein's Private Island: 'There Is No Evidence' By Janelle Griffith

White House chief of staff Susie Wiles said in a new Vanity Fair profile published on Tuesday, Dec. 16, that President Donald Trump “was wrong” when he accused former President Bill Clinton of visiting the private island of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Over the course of nearly a dozen interviews with the magazine, Wiles said she has read the Epstein documents and acknowledged that Trump’s name is in them.

Trump, 79, has claimed that Clinton repeatedly visited Epstein’s private island, Little St. James, where the financier’s alleged underage sex trafficking was said to have occurred. In Scotland over the summer, the president told reporters, “By the way, I never went to the island, and Bill Clinton went there, supposedly, 28 times.”

Trump has not offered evidence to support that claim, which Wiles acknowledged to Vanity Fair.

“There is no evidence” that those visits happened, Wiles, 68, told the magazine. She also refuted that there was anything incriminating about Clinton in the documents, as Trump has suggested, saying, “The president was wrong about that.”

Related Stories

New Epstein Island Photos Include Dental Chair Surrounded by ‘Disturbing’ Faces, Chalkboard Writings of ‘Power,’ ‘Deception’

Donald Trump Says He ‘Never Had the Privilege’ to Go to Epstein’s Island

Clinton, 79, has long maintained that, while he had been acquainted with Epstein, he was neither aware of nor engaging in any criminal activity.

In November, Trump publicly asked U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to open an investigation into Clinton and other Democrats’ ties to Epstein, deflecting the spotlight that had been placed on his own former friendship with the late sex offender.

The Vanity Fair profile was published in two parts Tuesday and also features others from Trump’s inner circle, including Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, as well as homeland security adviser Stephen Miller and press secretary Karoline Leavitt.

Wiles slammed the profile in a statement after its publishing, calling it a “disingenuously framed hit piece on me and the finest President, White House staff, and Cabinet in history.”

“Significant context was disregarded and much of what I, and others, said about the team and the President was left out of the story,” she claimed. “I assume, after reading it, that this was done to paint an overwhelmingly chaotic and negative narrative about the President and our team.”

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer.

Leavitt defended Wiles in a statement shared with PEOPLE, saying, “Chief of Staff Susie Wiles has helped President Trump achieve the most successful first 11 months in office of any President in American history.”

“President Trump has no greater or more loyal advisor than Susie,” the press secretary, 28, continued. “The entire Administration is grateful for her steady leadership and united fully behind her.”

Related Stories

Donald Trump’s Chief of Staff Says He Has an ‘Alcoholic’s Personality’ — but He Doesn’t Drink

Donald Trump Captured in New Batch of Epstein Photos Featuring Numerous Women

Last week, House Democrats released new photos of Epstein with Trump, Clinton and other prominent figures like Woody Allen and Steve Bannon.

Epstein died by suicide in August 2019 at the Metropolitan Correction Center in Manhattan while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges. His confidant, Ghislaine Maxwell, was convicted of sex trafficking in December 2021 for recruiting, enticing and transporting minors to engage in illegal sex acts with Epstein.

Trump has faced criticism, including from his supporters, about his administration’s handling of much-hyped records in Epstein’s sex trafficking investigation. In November, Trump called the files “a hoax” and sought to distance himself from them.

Wiles told Vanity Fair that FBI Director Kash Patel had long supported the release of the Epstein files.

“For years, Kash has been saying, ‘Got to release the files, got to release the files,’ ” Wiles said. “And he’s been saying that with a view of what he thought was in these files that turns out not to be right.”