On Friday, former President Bill Clinton stated he was unaware of Jeffrey Epstein’s criminal activities and had ceased contact with the financier well before his offenses became public.
In the opening statement of his deposition before the Republican-led House Oversight Committee’s Epstein probe, which he shared on X Friday, Clinton said, “I had no idea of the crimes Epstein was committing. I saw nothing, and I did nothing wrong.”
“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 continued.
Clinton appeared before the House Oversight Committee Friday after being subpoenaed along with his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as part of the committee’s Epstein investigation. Hillary Clinton testified Thursday. The depositions are taking place in private, though recordings and transcripts will be released publicly afterward, according to a committee spokesperson.
In January, the Clintons initially declined to appear for the inquiry, claiming they had already provided lawmakers with the limited information they possessed about Epstein and his longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell. However, the pair ultimately agreed to testify earlier this month after Republicans threatened to hold them in contempt of Congress.
Bill Clinton is one of several prominent figures who had connections to Epstein. The former president’s name and photograph appear multiple times in the so-called “Epstein files”—documents related to the Epstein investigations that the Justice Department has released. While Hillary Clinton’s name also appears in these records, nothing in them seems to indicate a personal relationship between her and the disgraced financier. Neither Clinton has been charged with any misconduct related to Epstein or Maxwell.
In his opening remarks to the House Oversight Committee, Bill Clinton condemned the panel for summoning his wife.
“Before we start, I have to get personal,” he said. “You made Hillary come in. She had nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein. Nothing. She has no memory of even meeting him. She neither traveled with him nor visited any of his properties. Whether you subpoenaed 10 people or 10,000, including her was simply not right.”
He emphasized that he had no awareness of the deceased sex offender’s crimes.
“Even with 20/20 hindsight, I saw nothing that ever gave me pause,” he said. “We are only here because [Epstein] hid it from everyone so well for so long. And by the time it came to light with his 2008 guilty plea, I had long stopped associating with him.”
Hillary Clinton also harshly criticized lawmakers in her Thursday opening statement, charging that the Republican-led committee forced her to testify “fully aware that I have no knowledge that would assist your investigation, in order to distract attention from President Trump’s actions and to cover them up despite legitimate calls for answers.”
and the reported earlier this week that the Justice Department omitted from its public document release numerous files concerning a woman who claimed Trump sexually assaulted her when she was underage. Following that report, Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the House Oversight Committee’s ranking Democrat, stated in a that Democrats on the committee “can confirm that the DOJ appears to have illegally withheld FBI interviews with this survivor who accused President Trump of heinous crimes.” He added that committee Democrats would investigate the matter.
Trump’s name and photograph appear in the Justice Department’s released files, and his previous relationship with Epstein has sparked fresh controversy in recent months as the President and his administration have come under fire for their management of the Epstein documents. The President has repeatedly denied any misconduct and claimed he had no knowledge of the financier’s crimes. In comments to both NPR and the Times, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson stated that Trump has been “totally exonerated on anything relating to Epstein.”
