Republicans' claim that Trump is 'exonerated' by Bill Clinton is wrecked by expert

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the media after arriving in Corpus Christi, Texas, U.S., February 27, 2026. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz

Former assistant U.S. Attorney Elie Honig burst Republicans’ bubble regarding their claim that President Donald Trump is exonerated from crimes connected to Jeffrey Epstein.

“The … claim that U.S. Rep. [James] Comer (R-Kent.) is making is that Bill Clinton somehow exonerated Donald Trump in his testimony today. Again, we'll have to see that transcript. But people are misusing and overusing this phrase ‘exonerate,’” said Honig to CNN anchor Jake Tapper, speaking of claims from the former president that he did not know Epstein was involved in sex-trafficking underage victims.

“I saw nothing, and I did nothing wrong,” Clinton told lawmakers today during interviews.

“There's no way Bill Clinton would be able to exonerate Donald Trump,” Honig pointed out. “At most, he would be able to say, ‘I don't know of Donald Trump doing anything wrong,’ but that's not universal global exoneration.”

Tapper pointed out that Comer and Republicans also asserted today that Epstein’s survivors had exonerated Donald Trump.

“Just to be crystal clear about this, the victims or survivors haven't exonerated anybody. They've made it very clear that they're afraid of naming names because they'll be sued or physically threatened and so they're waiting for the justice department to do that job, not them,” reported Tapper. “… [T]hey've exonerated zero people. And obviously that includes Donald Trump. Do you agree with that?”

“Yeah. ‘Exoneration’ means you're clearing this person for all purposes and for all time,” assured Honig, who served as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York. “If any victim says, ‘I never saw Donald Trump, I never saw him do anything bad,’ okay, that victim doesn't know anything about Donald Trump or name-your-person. But we are collectively way overusing this phrase ‘exoneration.’ That's not what ‘exoneration’ means.

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