NEW YORK — Former President Bill Clinton on Friday told members of the Republican-led House Oversight Committee that he “saw nothing” and “did nothing” wrong in relation to his ties with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The former president was deposed for about six hours in a closed-door setting one day after the committee questioned his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, about what she knew about the convicted sex offender.
“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,” Clinton said of Epstein in his opening statement to the panel, which he posted on X.
Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) told reporters after the deposition that Mr. Clinton “answered every question” or “attempted to answer every question” in the “very productive” deposition.
“He’s got Southern people skills,” Comer said.
While Clinton acknowledged knowing and traveling with Epstein, he said his wife had “nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein”.
“Whether you subpoena 10 people or 10,000, including her was simply not right,” he said in his opening statement.
“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 to the best of my abilities, consistent with the facts as I know them: the legitimate, the logical, and even the outlandish,” he added.
Clinton is the first sitting or former president to testify before members of Congress in more than 40 years.
Files related to the Epstein probes that have been released so far include numerous photographs of Bill Clinton with Epstein and Maxwell. Some of these photos depict Bill Clinton in a hot tub, swimming in a pool with Maxwell, and sitting at a table with a woman sitting on his leg.
The interview took place in Chappaqua, where the Clintons have a house. Comer said he expects a video and transcript of the Hillary Clinton deposition to be made public sometime Friday or Saturday.
Speaking to reporters about Clinton on Friday, President Donald Trump said, “I don’t like seeing him deposed. But they certainly went after me more than that.”
