Clinton tells Congress he ‘did nothing wrong’ with Epstein
WASHINGTON—Former President Bill Clinton told members of Congress on Friday that he “did nothing wrong” in his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and saw no signs of Epstein’s sexual abuse as he faced hours of grilling from lawmakers over his connections to the disgraced financier from more than two decades ago.
“I saw nothing, and I did nothing wrong,” the former Democratic president said in an opening statement he shared on social media. The closed-door deposition ended after more than six hours of questioning from lawmakers who said he answered every question posed to him.
The deposition in the Clintons’ hometown of Chappaqua, New York, marked the first time a former president has been compelled to testify to Congress. It came a day after Clinton’s wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, sat with lawmakers for her own deposition.
Bill Clinton has also not been accused of any wrongdoing, and Republican members of the House oversight committee did not immediately level any accusations against the Clintons as they departed Chappaqua. They planned to review the depositions but said their attention was mostly shifting to other individuals.
No sign of abuse
Lawmakers are grappling with what accountability in the United States looks like at a time when men around the world have been toppled from their high-powered posts for maintaining their connections with Epstein after he pleaded guilty in 2008 to state charges in Florida for soliciting prostitution from an underage girl.
“We have questions about anyone who spent time with Epstein post-conviction,” said Republican Rep. James Comer, the chair of the House oversight committee. “Once you knew Jeffrey Epstein was a sex offender, why did you continue a relationship?”
Bill Clinton, in his opening statement, said that he had long stopped associating with Epstein by the time of his 2008 guilty plea. He also said it would be difficult to recall the specifics of events from more than 20 years ago, but expressed certainty that he had not witnessed signs of Epstein’s abuse.
‘Selective memory’
Republican Rep. John McGuire accused Bill Clinton of having “selective memory” during the questioning, but other GOP members departed acknowledging that he had handled the deposition with skill and candor. Comer called Bill Clinton “charming” during the questioning.
“Clinton was quite candid, perhaps more candid than his attorneys were comfortable,” said Republican Rep. Nick Langworthy.
Republicans have wanted to question Bill Clinton about Epstein for years, especially as conspiracy theories arose following Epstein’s 2019 suicide in a New York jail cell while he faced sex trafficking charges.
Humanitarian work
Those calls reached a fever pitch late last year when several photos of the former president surfaced in the Department of Justice’s first release of case files on Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, a British socialite who was convicted of sex trafficking in December 2021 but maintains she’s innocent. Bill Clinton was photographed on a plane seated alongside a woman, whose face is redacted, with his arm around her. Another photo showed Clinton and Maxwell in a pool with another person whose face was redacted.
Epstein also visited the White House several times during Clinton’s presidency, and the pair later made several international trips together for their humanitarian work. Comer claimed the committee has collected evidence that Epstein visited the White House 17 times and that Bill Clinton flew on Epstein’s airplane 27 times.
Democratic lawmakers said they also posed tough questions to Bill Clinton about his relationship with Epstein and Maxwell.
“We are only here because he hid it from everyone so well for so long,” Bill Clinton said in his opening statement. “And by the time it came to light with his 2008 guilty plea, I had long stopped associating with him.”
Bill Clinton also went after Comer for calling his wife before the committee, telling him that “including her was simply not right.”
Comer said the committee was working to quickly publish a transcript and video recording of both days of depositions.
