Epstein sparks thousands of 'Clinton body count' comments

Jeffrey Epstein mugshot

The news that someone who might have incriminating information against Bill Clinton was injured in jail lit up the internet.

Manhattan financier Jeffrey Epstein, who faces charges of molesting underage girls and sex trafficking, was found in his Manhattan jail cell Tuesday in a semi-conscious state with bruising on his neck. Authorities are trying to determine whether the injury was self-inflicted or the result of an assault.

Newsweek reported "tens of thousands of tweets," mostly from "right-wing conspiracy theorists," were "reigniting pernicious, false accusations that former President Bill Clinton and wife, one-time Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, have covered up dozens of murders made to look like suicides."

The financier was placed on suicide watch at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City after the incident.

Newsweek noted the incident came after the Daily Beast published a story that "explored financial ties between the politically and socially connected convicted sex offender and Bill Clinton." Clinton claims he took only four trips on Epstein's jet, dubbed by tabloids the "Lolita Express." But flight logs, reported by Fox News, show he took at least 26 trips on the Boeing 727.

"Tens of thousands of tweets" have emerged, Newsweek said, using the #ClintonBodyCount hashtag.

"Democrats and Clinton allies immediately condemned Twitter for allowing the 'Clinton Body Count' conspiracy to trend," the report said.

Newsweek said the "Clinton Body Count" "conspiracy" dates to the 1990s when a now-deceased attorney "railed against the Clinton administration's deadly 1993 Waco, Texas, siege of the Branch Davidian church that resulted in more than 75 deaths."

No Bush or Obama 'body counts'

Talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh discussed the "Clinton body count" in 2016, citing a report from Rachel Alexander at Townhall.com titled "Clinton body count or left-wing conspiracy? Three with ties to DNC mysteriously die."

Limbaugh said he recalled Ted Koppel, then anchor of ABC News' "Nightline," routinely discussing the issue following the July 20, 1993, death of White House Deputy Counsel Vince Foster.

In fact, Limbaugh said, he appeared on Koppel’s show.

"One of the things I said was, 'Who knows what happened here? But let me ask you a question.' I said, 'Ted, how many people do you know in your life who've been murdered? Ted, how many people do you know in your life that have died under suspicious circumstances?'

"Of course, the answer is zilch, zero, nada, none, very few," Limbaugh said. "Ask the Clintons that question. And it's a significant number. It's a lot of people that they know who have died, who've been murdered.

"And the same question here from Rachel Alexander. It's amazing the cycle that exists with the Clintons."

Alexander noted "you don't hear of a Bush body count — not even an Obama body count," but there is a "Clinton body count."

WND has complied a list of 33 of the "most mysterious deaths."

They include attorney Shawn Lucas, 38, who helped serve the DNC with a lawsuit claiming then-DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz "rigged the [2016] primary for Hillary Clinton" and days later was found dead in his bathroom. The cause of death wasn't determined.

Another was former U.N. official John Ashe, founded dead in his New York home. Officials said it was a heart attack, but local police said his throat had been crushed by a barbell.

Another man, an MI6 spy who had illegally hacked secret data on Bill Clinton, was found dead, naked, padlocked and stuffed in a duffel bag in a London hotel bathtub.

Scotland Yard said it was a suicide.