Former US president Bill Clinton told members of Congress on Friday that he “saw nothing and did nothing wrong” in his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and saw no signs of his abuse.
He was giving closed-door testimony before a House committee investigating the disgraced financier’s political connections.
“I saw nothing, and I did nothing wrong,” Clinton said in a statement prepared for delivery at his deposition in Chappaqua, New York. “I know what I saw, and more importantly, what I didn’t see.”
Clinton said he had “no idea of the crimes Epstein was committing” and described their relationship as a “brief acquaintance” that ended years before Epstein’s conduct became public.
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Clinton on Friday became the first former US president forced to testify to Congress. His wife, former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, testified before the same panel on Thursday.
The former president signaled that some of his answers may frustrate lawmakers, cautioning that he would not speculate about events from decades ago. “You’ll often hear me say that I don’t recall,” he said. “I’m not going to say something I’m not sure of.”
Hillary Clinton told reporters after her own deposition, which she said spanned topics like UFOs and the PizzaGate conspiracy theory, that she is confident her husband knew nothing about Epstein’s crimes.
The Republican chairman of the committee said the panel would question Clinton on flights the former president took on Epstein’s private plane and visits the financier made to the White House during the Clinton presidency.
“No one’s accusing anyone of any wrongdoing, but I think the American people have a lot of questions, oversight committee chair James Comer told reporters Friday before the Clinton deposition was set to begin.
US president Donald Trump and his allies have sought to put a spotlight on Epstein’s connections to Democrats, including the Clintons, amid public attention on the sex offender’s ties to the president and his associates, including commerce secretary Howard Lutnick and former senior adviser Steve Bannon.
Clinton was due to “be thoroughly asked about” photos of him featured in the first tranche of Epstein files released by the US justice department in December, said Republican representative Nancy Mace of South Carolina, one of the lawmakers on the panel.
Those photos, including one of the former president soaking in a jacuzzi and another swimming with Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, garnered significant media attention.
Mace said the panel questioned Hillary Clinton about the photos Thursday but she re-directed the questions to her husband.
“Since I am under oath, I will not falsely state that I am looking forward to your questions. But I am ready to answer them,” the former president said in his opening statement.
Representative Robert Garcia, the panel’s top-ranking Democrat, told reporters before the deposition began that Democrats “have real questions, questions that deserve serious answers from former president Clinton” but “what we do not want today is a sideshow.”
Bill Clinton took several trips on Epstein’s private plane before Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to Florida state charges that included procurement of a minor to engage in prostitution.
Epstein also donated $1,000 to Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign and $20,000 to Hillary Clinton’s 2000 US Senate campaign. A charity controlled by Epstein contributed $25,000 to the Clintons’ private foundation.
In an interview with the BBC in mid-February, Hillary Clinton said her husband had flown on Epstein’s private jet “for his charitable work,” and she didn’t recall ever meeting Epstein. She said she had met Maxwell “on a few occasions.”
Maxwell was convicted in 2021 of recruiting girls for sexual abuse and participating in some of the assaults. She is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence.
Bill Clinton has said that he parted ways with Epstein many years before the financier’s 2019 death in a New York jail cell while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. Authorities ruled the death a suicide.
The Clintons yielded to Republican demands to appear before the committee investigating Epstein after lawmakers threatened to hold them both in contempt of Congress if they did not testify.
The Clintons said they had offered to send sworn statements to the committee as others who had been subpoenaed to testify had done, but the Republican-led panel turned them down. - Bloomberg
