Photo from the Jeffrey Epstein files released by the U.S. Justice Department showing Bill Clinton and Jeffrey Epstein. Date and context is unclear.
U.S. Department of Justice
Former President Bill Clinton was set to tell the House Oversight Committee on Friday morning in testimony about Jeffrey Epstein that “I saw nothing and I did nothing wrong” during their times flying together or socializing.
“First, I had no idea of the crimes Epstein was committing,” Clinton planned to say during his closed-door deposition, which was underway in Chappaqua, New York.
“No matter how many photos you show me, I have two things that at the end of the day matter more than your interpretation of those 20-year-old photos. I know what I saw, and more importantly, what I didn’t see,” Clinton said to say.
“I know what I did, and more importantly, what I didn’t do,” he planned to say. “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,” Clinton planned to say.
“But even with 20/20 hindsight, I saw nothing that ever gave me pause.”
Clinton also blasted the committee for forcing his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, to testify about the notorious sex predator Epstein on Thursday. The committee issued subpoenas to both Clintons demanding their testimony, and threatened to hold them in contempt of Congress if they failed to comply.
Hillary Clinton says she has told the panel that she neither recalls ever meeting Epstein, or having knowledge of his sexual abuse of young women and underage girls.
“Before we start, I have to get personal,” Bill Clinton said, according to prepared testimony that his X account posted.
“You made Hillary come in. She had nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein. Nothing. She has no memory of even meeting him,” the former president was set to say.
“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.”
The House Oversight Committee has not sought testimony from President Donald Trump about Epstein.
The two men were friends for years before falling out in the early 2000s.
Epstein was arrested in July 2019 on federal child sex trafficking charges, during Trump’s first presidential administration.
Epstein killed himself weeks later in a federal jail in New York City.
Trump said that millions of documents related to Epstein that were recently released by the Department of Justice exonerated him of any wrongdoing.
Trump for months last year opposed the bill in Congress that would force the DOJ to release those files. He dropped his opposition when it became clear Congress would pass that bill, and then he signed it into law in late November.
