Newly uncovered video shows Ghislaine Maxwell receiving applause at a Clinton Global Initiative conference in 2013 — two years after she was publicly accused of recruiting underage girls for Jeffrey Epstein.
According to CNN’s KFile, Maxwell was an honored guest during a CGI luncheon on ocean conservation, standing alongside other “Commitment to Action” leaders as the audience applauded. Internal documents reviewed by CNN placed Maxwell on a list of recommended complimentary guests — a list that, according to a source, would have required sign-off from Bill or Hillary Clinton.
By 2013, allegations against Maxwell were already public. Virginia Giuffre had filed civil claims in 2009 alleging Maxwell groomed her for Epstein, and major British media reports in 2011 described Maxwell as actively procuring underage girls for abuse.
In fact, Clinton aides reportedly barred Maxwell from official events in 2011 — making her recognition two years later all the more striking.
Being named a CGI “Commitment to Action” partner was considered prestigious, lending credibility to Maxwell’s TerraMar Project, an ocean conservation nonprofit she launched in 2012. Critics have since described TerraMar as a vehicle to rehabilitate her image, noting it produced little measurable conservation work.
The Clinton Foundation, in response to CNN’s findings, insisted Maxwell’s presence was insignificant. A representative said more than 600 complimentary passes were approved that year and that such decisions were “made at the staff level.”
“This is about someone working on ocean conservation attending a charitable conference 12 years ago, along with thousands of other people, and nothing more,” a spokesperson for Bill Clinton added. “As we have consistently said, the Clintons know nothing about Jeffrey Epstein’s terrible crimes.”
Still, Maxwell’s relationship with the Clintons extended beyond CGI. She co-hosted a 2007 Hillary Clinton fundraiser, attended Chelsea Clinton’s 2010 wedding, and was photographed with the family on multiple occasions. In a Justice Department interview this summer, Maxwell claimed she introduced Bill Clinton to Epstein and suggested Epstein’s jet for Clinton Foundation travel.
Maxwell was convicted in 2021 of sex trafficking and sentenced to 20 years in prison. But CNN’s investigation underscores how, years after the first allegations surfaced, she remained in the Clintons’ orbit — celebrated at one of their most prestigious global gatherings.
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