A campaign spokesman has put out a statement in response to reports circulating that independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy once flew on the notorious convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s private airplane.
Newsweek reported Wednesday that RFK Jr.’s name was included “among a number of high-profile people” who the outlet had previously named as former passengers on the aircraft.
The plane has been scornfully referred to as the “Lolita Express” for allegedly being used to transport underage girls to Epstein’s properties.
Newsweek quoted a Kennedy spokesperson as acknowledging that the candidate flew once on Epstein’s plane in 1993 to travel from New York City to Palm Beach, Florida, to visit RFK Jr.’s mother, Ethel Kennedy, for Easter.
The trip was arranged by Kennedy’s then-wife, Mary Richardson Kennedy, “who was friendly with Epstein’s partner at the time, Ghislaine Maxwell,” Newsweek reported.
“Mary, Kennedy’s wife, and two of their kids were on the flight,” the representative told the news outlet. “Mary knew Epstein’s girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, who learned that they were going to Palm Beach for Easter and offered their family a ride.”
Mary Richardson Kennedy passed away in 2012. Kennedy has since married his current wife, Cheryl Hines.
Another report by Business and Politics Review included social media posts discussing a second trip by RFK Jr. aboard the Epstein jet, also reportedly arranged by Mary Kennedy and Ghislaine Maxwell.
The posts quoted from Whitney Webb’s 2022 book, “One Nation Under Blackmail, Vol. 2,” which said the other trip involved RFK Jr., Mary, and two of the Kennedy children and was an expedition to a fossil hunting site in South Dakota, “which [Kennedy] believed had been Ghislaine’s idea as Epstein had appeared to only have attended ‘grudgingly.’”
“‘On that trip, Kennedy remembered that Epstein ‘did not mingle with us and hardly spoke and did not participate in the fossil hunt.’”
On that trip, according to the book excerpt, “Epstein ‘clearly’ had a problem with Kennedy’s ‘rambunctious children’ and ‘half way back to New York, [Epstein] ordered the pilot to put down at Midway Field in Chicago. He got off the plane and made his own way home. A blonde was waiting for him at planeside in Chicago.
“Kennedy remembered that Ghislaine was ‘in silent tears’ after Epstein’s abrupt departure.”
Never a client, as far as I know.
Bobby knew Epstein through his 2nd wife Mary, who was also friends with Ghislaine Maxwell. (Maxwell attended Mary’s funeral in 2012.)
Whitney Webb asked Bobby about the Epstein connection in her most recent book. pic.twitter.com/vN7iQGbFoc
— Lori Spencer (@RealLoriSpencer) July 1, 2023
“The Epstein scandal also continues to be a talking point in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election,” Newsweek explained. It hastened to add that, “There is no suggestion that those who did fly on the jet were involved in any illegal activity.”
Liberal media outlets are fond of mentioning that Donald Trump knew Epstein and traveled on his plane. Wendesday’s Newsweek story was no exception.
The story made a point of repeating the outlet’s claim that “records show Trump boarded Epstein’s plane, which allegedly flew underage girls to his properties, seven times.”
“In a flight log from June 1994, Trump’s name appears alongside ‘Marla’ — presumably his then-wife Marla Maples — his then-baby daughter Tiffany, and a nanny,” the 2021 story reported. Another flight log in 1995 listed Trump’s son Eric, then 11, as a passenger.
It did not see fit to mention in this week’s story that Democratic darling Bill Clinton was also an apparent frequent flyer on the “Lolita Express,” though the outlet’s 2021 story mentioned several prominent passenger names, including Trump, Clinton, and Prince Andrew.
In its mention of Trump’s alleged seven trips on Epstein’s plane, however, Newsweek hastened to add that he has “not been accused of any involvement in Epstein and Maxwell’s alleged crimes.”
The outlet quoted Trump ally Roger Stone as calling references linking Trump to Epstein flights a “smear,” implying they are being circulated online by supporters of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is vying with Trump for the GOP presidential nomination in 2024.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
