CHAPPAQUA, USA – Former US president Bill Clinton has denied any wrongdoing during a congressional deposition about his links to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, whilst Democrats demanded that Donald Trump also face questioning over his connections to the disgraced financier.
“I saw nothing, and I did nothing wrong,” Clinton said in his opening statement on Friday, which was shared on social media following the closed-door hearing in Chappaqua, New York.
The Republican chair of the House committee investigating Epstein’s network, James Comer, described the session as “very productive” and said Clinton “answered every question — or attempted to answer every question.”
However, Republican committee member Nancy Mace alleged there were “inconsistencies” in his testimony without providing specific examples.
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Democrats call for Trump testimony
Democratic lawmakers have intensified calls for Trump, who also has well-documented links to Epstein, to appear before the panel.
“Let’s be real, we are talking to the wrong president,” said Democratic committee member Suhas Subramanyam, emphasising that Clinton had not dodged any questions.
Photo: Charly Triballeau / AFP
Hillary Clinton, who testified on Thursday, defiantly called for Trump to appear before the panel, saying lawmakers should ask him “directly under oath about the tens of thousands of times he shows up in the Epstein files.”
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Background to the investigation
Clinton acknowledged extensive interactions with Epstein but maintained he never visited the financier’s infamous private Caribbean island. He said he flew on Epstein’s private plane several times in the early 2000s for Clinton Foundation-related humanitarian work.
“Jeffrey Epstein was in the White House 17 times while Bill Clinton was President. We know that Bill Clinton flew on Jeffrey Epstein’s plane at least 27 times,” Comer stated.
Clinton insisted in his opening statement: “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.”
Being mentioned in the files released by the US Department of Justice does not imply wrongdoing, and neither Clinton nor Trump has been accused of a crime or formally investigated in relation to Epstein.
The Clintons had initially rejected subpoenas ordering them to testify but agreed after House Republicans threatened to hold them in contempt of Congress. Both called for the depositions to be public and televised, with Bill Clinton likening the closed-door proceedings to a “kangaroo court.”
Epstein was convicted in 2008 for soliciting sex from girls as young as 14 but died in a New York prison cell in 2019 before he could be tried on sex trafficking charges. His death was ruled a suicide.
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