Dead pedophile Jeffrey Epstein tapped Bill Clinton’s former White House press secretary Joe Lockhart — calling him “lockhard” in what looked like an email typo — for help with damage control over a widening sex-trafficking scandal in 2015, according to documents released by the Justice Department and reviewed by The Post.
Lockhart — who served as White House press secretary from 1998 to 2000, fielding the media firestorm over Clinton’s salacious affair with Monica Lewinsky — was introduced to Epstein by Clinton’s ex-Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, according to the “Epstein files” released by the Justice Department and the House Oversight Committee.
“I’d like to talk to lockhard if you think he is smart,” Epstein wrote Summers in an email exchange on Jan. 25, 2015, misspelling the crisis PR expert’s surname.
At the time, Epstein was engulfed in a PR crisis over explosive 2014 court filings by Virginia Roberts Giuffre, which accused the late financier of running a sex-trafficking ring and keeping her as a “sex slave” for rich and powerful men, including Britain’s now-former Prince Andrew.
In the back-and-forth with Summers, Epstein griped that the media coverage was “still an onslaught but so preposterous that it becomes more easily seen as a farce,” according to the emails.
In response, Summers recommended Lockhart, noting that he had previously assisted Bill Clinton and former CIA Director David Petraeus.
“Capable and experienced. Calm. Was Clinton press secretary,” Summers said of Lockhart, who went on to land top spin doctor gigs with Facebook and the NFL.
The now-ex Harvard University professor then introduced the two men in a separate, blank email later on Jan. 25, 2015 with the subject line “Connecting the two of you.”
There is no evidence in the document dump that Epstein ever signed a contract with Lockhart, but emails show they promptly made arrangements to talk on the phone.
Lockhart told The Post on Wednesday he never worked for Epstein.
“Mr Epstein called me seeking consulting help. I declined the offer,” he said in an email.
“I had no idea who suggested he call me and didn’t know it was Summers until the files were released,” he added.
That’s despite the fact that Summers sent the pair an introductory email and Epstein name-dropped Summers when he reached out to Lockhart, according to the files.
“Larry Summers suggested we speak. I understand you are short on time; ten minutes at your convenience would be appreciated,” Epstein wrote Lockhart on Jan. 26, 2015.
“Can I give you a call tomorrow? What’s the best number?” Lockhart replied before Epstein supplied his phone number, with the pair agreeing to talk at 10 a.m. the following day.
Lockhart said in an interview with CNN on Jul 9, 2019, three days after the financier was arrested, that he knew “most of the Clinton circle, Jeffrey Epstein’s not part of it.”
“I have never met the guy. I have met most of the president’s friends,” Lockhart told the network, making no mention of his email exchange or a call with Epstein four years earlier.
The previously unreported links between Epstein and the Clinton camp are causing “unease” amongst those close to the former president and ex-secretary of state, sources told The Post.
“The Clintons’ inner circle is trying to build a moat around Lockhart. They are worried this could all blow up again,” said one insider in a thinly-veiled reference to the former First Family’s testimony to Congress.
“Lockhart has been calling around close friends to assess potential damage to his interests,” the person briefed on the matter added.
When subpoenaed to appear last week for a congressional hearing, Bill and Hillary Clinton denied wrongdoing and any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes.
After his White House years, Lockhart established his Washington, DC-based PR and lobbying firm, the Glover Park Group, now part of FGS Global.
Filings show he represented major US firms including Wall Street giant JPMorgan, Pfizer, and top asset manager Blackstone, led by Stephen Schwarzman.
His current firm, Rational 360, represented the Saudi Public Investment Fund, the oil-rich kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, according to DOJ disclosures.
Giuffre, who died by suicide in last April, alleged in the court filings that she was lured into Epstein’s orbit in 1999 when she was a minor.
She claimed his British madam, Ghislaine Maxwell, recruited her under the guise of working as a massage therapist, but the position was a front for sexual exploitation.
Giuffre alleged that from 1999 to 2002, Epstein and Maxwell systematically groomed, physically abused, and sexually trafficked her on Epstein’s private jet, dubbed the Lollita Express.
She said she was flown to his various properties, including his Manhattan mansion, his Palm Beach estate, and his private island in the US Virgin Islands
.Epstein, who died in jail by suicide in 2019, awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges, regularly sought PR advice from a wide range of New York power players, including Summers, outgoing Goldman Sachs general counsel Kathy Ruemmler, and former Harvey Weinstein rep Matthew Hiltzik.
Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year sentence on similar charges for her role in what prosecutors called Epstein’s “pyramid of abuse.”
The Lockhart disclosure is the latest in a series of damaging revelations about Summers’ extensive, years-long relationship with Epstein, which continued well after Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting prostitution from a minor.
The document trove revealed a deeply personal dynamic between the men. It has cost the former Treasury Secretary his tenure at Harvard University and two cushy consulting gigs for OpenAI and left-wing hedge fund DE Shaw.
In messages from 2018 and 2019, Summers actively sought dating advice from Epstein regarding a woman he described as an “economic mentor.”
In one exchange, Epstein referred to himself as Summers’ “wing man” and encouraged him to be persistent.
Summers, who also served in Barack Obama’s White House as director of the National Economic Council, has publicly expressed regret over the emails.
He said late last year that he is “deeply ashamed” of his actions and that his continued association with Epstein was a “major error of judgment.”
