Former President Bill Clinton on Friday told members of the Republican-led House Oversight Committee investigating his ties to Jeffrey Epstein that "I saw nothing" and "did nothing wrong," and criticized the panel for making his wife sit for a deposition.
"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.
The former president is being deposed in a closed-door setting one day after the committee questioned his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, for around six hours about what she knew about the convicted sex offender Epstein and co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell.
While he acknowledged knowing and traveling with Epstein, he said his wife had "nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein" and "no memory of even meeting him."
"Whether you subpoena 10 people or 10,000, including her was simply not right," he wrote.
His statement concluded, “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.
"With that, Mr. Chairman, fire away.”
Clinton is the first sitting or former president to testify before members of Congress in more than 40 years.
“It’s a historical day for the United States Congress,” Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., told reporters before the deposition. "No one is accusing anyone of any wrongdoing, but I think the American people have a lot of questions and our House Oversight Committee is committed to getting answers."
Comer said Thursday that he expected the former president's deposition to take "even longer" than his wife's testimony. The meeting is taking place in Chappaqua, New York, 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, and would release the Bill Clinton video and transcript as "quickly" as possible.
Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the committee, said Friday that "we have real questions that deserve serious answers" from the former president, but reiterated his calls for the panel to question President Donald Trump as well.
The Clinton interview began around 11 a.m. ET, according to a person familiar. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., told reporters about an hour into the deposition that he was "being very cooperative" and "answering all of our questions."
The Clintons told the committee in sworn declarations last month that they had “no personal knowledge” of any “criminal activities” by Epstein or Maxwell.
Hillary Clinton has said she has no recollection of ever having met Epstein, but Bill Clinton has acknowledged he flew on the his plane in 2002 and 2003 while he was traveling internationally for the Clinton Foundation. In his declaration, Bill Clinton said Epstein "offered a plane that was big enough to accommodate me, my staff and my U.S. Secret Service detail, in support of visiting the Foundation's philanthropic work."
While Trump has accused him of having taken dozens of trips to Epstein's island in the Caribbean, Bill Clinton said in his declaration that he was never there. White House chief of staff Susie Wiles said in an interview with Vanity Fair last year that Trump “was wrong about that.”
Emails by Epstein the Justice Department released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act also indicated that Bill Clinton did not go to the island, and Maxwell said in an interview with a top Justice Department official last year that he had never been there.
"I do not recall speaking to Mr. Epstein for more than a decade prior to his 2019 arrest" on sex trafficking charges, Bill Clinton's declaration said. Epstein, who pleaded guilty in Florida to state charges of soliciting a minor in 2008, died in jail while he was awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges. Maxwell was convicted of sex trafficking charges in 2021 and is serving a 20-year prison sentence.
Files related to the Epstein probes that have been released to date include numerous pictures of Bill Clinton with Epstein and Maxwell. In some of the photos, Bill Clinton is shown in a hot tub, swimming in a pool with Maxwell and sitting at a table with a woman sitting on his leg.
The pictures are undated, and it’s unclear where they were taken. None suggests any wrongdoing.
Comer said Friday they plan on questioning Clinton about the pictures, any involvement Epstein might have had with his Clinton Global Initiative and trips Epstein made to the White House while Clinton was president.
Clinton said in his declaration that Epstein "may well have attended any of the many hundreds of White House events or receptions during my eight years in office," but "I do not recall encountering Mr. Epstein, or any specific interactions with him, while in office."
The Oversight Committee in August subpoenaed the Clintons and several former top Justice Department officials to testify about Epstein. After months of back-and-forth, the former first couple agreed to testify as the House was moving toward voting on contempt resolutions for them.
Comer told reporters that Hillary Clinton had been questioned on Thursday about Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Lutnick acknowledged earlier this month that he'd visited Epstein's island with his family in 2012.
Lutnick has not been charged with any wrongdoing and has denied any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein. Comer said Thursday he was open to deposing him, something Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., said Friday she was in favor of bringing him in. "I believe we will have votes to subpoena him," said Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif.
Trump told reporters on the White House lawn that "Howard would go in and do whatever he has to say. He's a very innocent guy."
It's very rare for a sitting or former president to appear before members of Congress. The last to do so was former President Gerald R. Ford in 1983, when he testified before a Senate subcommittee about planning for the bicentennial of the Constitution.
Ford also answered questions from Congress as president, appearing before a House subcommittee in 1974 to testify about his pardon of Richard M. Nixon, his predecessor.
The Democratic-led House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol subpoenaed Trump to testify in 2022. Trump challenged the subpoena, with his then-lawyer David Warrington, now the White House counsel, saying in a statement, “Long held precedent and practice maintain that separation of powers prohibits Congress from compelling a President to testify before it.”
The committee withdrew the subpoena before it shut down at the end of 2022.
Democrats on the panel have said repeatedly that deposing the Clintons should open the door to calling Trump in for testimony.
In her opening statement Thursday, Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, accused the committee of focusing on her and her husband "in order to distract attention from President Trump’s actions and cover them up despite legitimate calls for answers.”
“If this committee is serious about learning the truth about Epstein’s trafficking crimes, it would not rely on press gaggles to get answers from our current president on his involvement; it would ask him directly under oath about the tens of thousands of times he shows up in the Epstein files,” she said.
Trump, who says he had a falling-out with Epstein before he was first charged criminally in 2006, has denied any wrongdoing, and authorities have not accused him of any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein. In November, Trump directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate Epstein's "involvement and relationship with Bill Clinton" and other Democrats. The status of that investigation is unclear.
Speaking to reporters about Clinton on Friday, Trump said, "I don’t like seeing him deposed. But they certainly went after me more than that.”
