Epstein's death being linked to Bill and Hillary as old 'Clinton body count' conspiracy theory resurfaces
Clinton Body Count is a conspiracy theory that began in 1994 and since then a number of deaths have been believed to be the result of Bill Clinton and/or his wife Hillary Clinton removing anyone who has evidence against them. This conspiracy theory resurfaced when Jeffrey Epstein who was accused of sex trafficking among other charges, was found unconscious in the jail cell where he was held with wounds on his neck. He was placed on a suicide watch, however, many on social media were unconvinced. The hashtag #Clintonbodycount began trending the day Epstein was found in his cell. Now, with Epstein reportedly committing suicide on August 9, the conspiracy theory has found new life.
According to a report in NBC News, #Clintonbodycount began to trend with just over 70,000 tweets out by August 8 afternoon. This also resulted in Twitter users criticizing the microblogging platform for including the hashtag on the sidebar. A Twitter spokesperson responded to the criticism and said, "Trends are determined by velocity, not volume."
Since the news of Epstein's reported death was released, users on Twitter have yet again taken to the social media platform to bring back the hashtag. For instance, user Akemm2Annette referred to the suicide watch that Epstein was on and said, "Whoever was 'Watching ' looked the other way and now has a fat offshore account. #ClintonBodyCount #EpsteinSuicide."
Another user wrote, "Epstein the perfect example how the USA is rampant in corruption when “political analysts” talk about corruption in Russia, they fail to mention how USA is even more corrupt, a country where its citizens r gunned down all in the name of $$, #Clintoncide #ClintonBodyCount."
In 1994, former representative William Dannemeyer addressed a letter to congressional leaders in which he listed 24 names and who were in some way connected to the Clintons and died “under other than natural circumstances” and he called for a hearing on the matter. This list was believed to have been borrowed from a listed compiled by an Indianapolis lawyer, Linda Thompson. Her list titled 'The Clinton Body Count: Coincidence or the Kiss of Death?' had 34 names, but Thompson did not have any solid proof to connect what she claimed were suspicious deaths to the Clintons. Thompson quit her year-old general practice to run her American Justice Federation, which was a for-profit organization that promoted pro-gun causes and floated many a conspiracy theory through its newsletter.
One of the prominent names that were a part of this list was Vince Foster, who was former White House counsel and also a colleague of Hillary at Little Rock’s Rose Law firm. The suspicions arose because Foster died due to a gunshot wound, however, the same was ruled a suicide. Coincidentally, Clinton had fired the FBI director at that time, leaving the organization with no leader and hence investigation into Foster's death was conducted by US Park Service in the Department of the Interior instead of the FBI. Especially considering Foster was a high ranking White House official to meet his death while still in office. This cemented the conspiracy theory, which has since seen many names including Kathy Ferguson, ex-wife of Arkansas Trooper Danny Ferguson; Gandy Baugh, Attorney for Clinton’s friend Dan Lassater; Suzanne Coleman, who reportedly had an affair with Clinton when he was Arkansas Attorney General; among others.
The most recent member to be added to this list before Epstein was Seth Rich, an employee of the Democratic National Committee who died after suffering from two gunshot wounds to the back. The conspiracy theorists claimed that Rich happened to be one of the sources from DNC who had been involved with the email leak that had occurred in 2016. This was later contradicted by the law enforcement team that investigated Rich's murder. Media houses and fact-checking websites during the time of investigation into Rich's murder had claimed that these theories had no backing in facts. This was during the 2016 United States presidential election and according to a report in Newsweek, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange had also said that Rich was the source behind the emails that were leaked in 2016. However, no substantial proof could be found.