As Clinton’s presidency was ending, his wife’s political career was beginning. In 2000 Hillary Rodham Clinton was elected to the U.S. Senate representing New York; she was the first wife of a U.S. president to win elected office. She went on to lose narrowly to Barack Obama the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination in 2008, but Obama appointed her secretary of state in his presidential administration. Bill Clinton remained active in political affairs and was a popular speaker on the lecture circuit. In 2001 he founded the William J. Clinton Foundation, a philanthropic organization that addressed various global issues through such programs as the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative (established 2002), the Clinton Economic Opportunity Initiative (2002), the Clinton Global Initiative (2005), and the Clinton Climate Initiative (2006). In 2004 the William J. Clinton Presidential Library and Museum opened in Little Rock.

The following year, after a tsunami in the Indian Ocean had caused widespread death and devastation, Bill Clinton was appointed by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan to serve as a special envoy for relief efforts, a position he held until 2007. In 2009 Clinton succeeded former president George H.W. Bush as chairman of the National Constitution Center, a history museum in Philadelphia. Later that year he was named a UN special envoy to Haiti. In the wake of the devastating earthquake that struck that country in January 2010, Clinton’s UN portfolio was expanded to include overseeing aid efforts and reconstruction. During the 2012 general election in the United States, Clinton campaigned for Obama, helping him to win a second term in the White House. In 2013 Clinton was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

In 2015 Hillary Clinton announced that she was entering the U.S. presidential race of 2016, and Bill played an active role in her campaign. She won the Democratic nomination, becoming the first woman to top the presidential ticket of a major party in the United States, but ultimately lost the election to Donald Trump. In 2017 Bill and the four other living former presidents (Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama) launched the One America Appeal, which initially sought to help the victims of Hurricane Harvey and later expanded its mission to include those affected by several subsequent hurricanes.

During his post-presidency, Clinton’s connection with financier and convicted sex-offender Jeffrey Epstein became known. While Clinton has never been accused of any wrongdoing related to his relationship with Epstein, he did fly on Epstein’s private jet multiple times. Clinton has said these trips were related to work for the Clinton Foundation. He was also among a number of prominent individuals named in court documents released in 2024 and reportedly was among some 50 people who contributed to a bawdy birthday album for Epstein in 2003. Clinton knew Epstein at least as early as 1993, when Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell were photographed speaking with Clinton at a White House event.

Clinton is also featured in a number of photographs in the notorious Epstein files, including one in which he is in a swimming pool with Maxwell and a woman whose identity has been redacted. In 2026, Bill and Hillary Clinton were deposed separately by the House Oversight Committee. In his testimony, which was conducted behind closed doors at the insistence of the Republican-led committee, Clinton said, “I saw nothing, and I did nothing wrong.”

Clinton, who became the first former president forced to testify before Congress, went on to reference his difficult childhood as further evidence that he was unaware of Epstein’s activities. “As someone who grew up in a home with domestic abuse, not only would I not have flown on his plane if I had any inkling of what he was doing—I would have turned him in myself and led the call for justice for his crimes, not sweetheart deals,” he said.

Bill Clinton’s writings include an autobiography, My Life (2004); Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World (2007), in which he encouraged readers to become involved in various worthy causes; and Back to Work: Why We Need Smart Government for a Strong Economy (2011). He also wrote (with James Patterson) the thrillers The President Is Missing (2018) and The President’s Daughter (2021).

Cabinet of Pres. Bill Clinton

The table provides a list of cabinet members in the administration of Pres. Bill Clinton.