Washington — Former President Invoice Clinton denied any information of Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes in a gap assertion earlier than the Home Oversight Committee in New York on Friday, the primary time a former president has been compelled to testify to Congress.
“I had no thought of the crimes Epstein was committing,” Clinton stated in his assertion. “Irrespective of what number of images you present me, I’ve two issues that on the finish of the day matter greater than your interpretation of these 20-year-old images. I do know what I noticed, and extra importantly, what I did not see. I do know what I did, and extra importantly, what I did not do. I noticed nothing, and I did nothing fallacious.”
He acknowledged that he could inform lawmakers he doesn’t recall sure occasions, saying he wouldn’t “speculate or guess” beneath oath about interactions that occurred years in the past.
“This was all a very long time in the past,” Clinton stated. “I’m sure by my oath to not speculate.”
Through the deposition, Clinton was requested a couple of now-viral picture of him in a scorching tub with an unnamed lady that was launched as a part of the Epstein information, two sources instructed CBS Information.
In line with the sources, Clinton stated he didn’t know who the lady was. He was requested if he had intercourse together with her and responded no.
Justice Division 
A supply additionally confirmed Clinton was requested a number of instances if he visited Epstein’s island and he responded beneath oath that he had by no means been there.
The deposition befell behind closed doorways in Chappaqua, New York, the Clintons’ hometown. It caps what Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, the Republican chairman of the committee, described as a prolonged effort to safe testimony from the previous president and his spouse, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Each initially refused to adjust to a subpoena earlier than relenting beneath menace of a Home vote to carry them in contempt.
“President Clinton answered each query or tried to reply each query,” Comer stated after the deposition ended.
Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina added that the previous president tried to reply each single query “even when his attorneys instructed him to close up.”
Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida stepped out of the deposition after 12 p.m. to notice that the previous president “is being very cooperative.”
“I haven’t got any motive to imagine proper now that he is hiding the ball,” she stated. “On the whole lot, he is been fairly clear.”
Invoice Clinton’s testimony got here a day after Hillary Clinton spent hours with the panel. Comer stated the previous secretary of state often deferred questions on her husband’s interactions with Epstein.
“There have been no less than a dozen instances when she stated, ‘You may need to ask my husband that. I am unable to reply that,'” Comer stated.
In his assertion, Invoice Clinton criticized the committee for bringing his spouse in for questioning, saying she “had nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein. Nothing.”
“She has no reminiscence of even assembly him. She neither traveled with him nor visited any of his properties. Whether or not you subpoenaed 10 individuals or 10,000, together with her was merely not proper,” he stated.
The previous president has appeared in images with Epstein which have been launched in latest months and took a handful of journeys with him a long time in the past, however has not been accused of any wrongdoing. Comer stated lawmakers deliberate to ask Invoice Clinton concerning the images, e mail correspondence mentioning him, flights he took on Epstein’s jet and occasions Epstein attended on the White Home whereas Clinton was president.
Rep. Robert Garcia, the committee’s high Democrat, stated Democrats have “actual questions that deserve critical solutions” from the previous president, however famous that the questioning of Hillary Clinton devolved right into a “sideshow” with a “sequence of weird questions” about UFOs and conspiracy theories. He stated the committee ought to name for President Trump to testify about his personal ties to Epstein.
“Republicans at the moment are setting a brand new precedent, which is to usher in presidents and former presidents to testify,” Garcia stated. “We at the moment are asking and demanding that President Trump formally are available in and testify in entrance of the Oversight Committee.”
On Friday afternoon, Democrats continued to emphasise their want for Mr. Trump to look. Although he declined to share specifics, Garcia stated Invoice Clinton talked about “some extra details about some discussions with President Trump.”
Moments earlier than Democrats spoke to reporters, Comer recalled Invoice Clinton saying, “President Trump has by no means stated something to me to make me suppose he was concerned and he met with Epstein.”
However Garcia argued Comer’s description was not an “correct description of what really was stated.” Garcia stated Invoice Clinton’s testimony “brings up some crucial new questions on feedback that President Trump has really stated up to now.”
In a sworn declaration submitted to the committee final month, the previous president stated Epstein provided his non-public aircraft to him, his employees and his Secret Service element in help of the Clinton Basis’s philanthropic work between 2002 and 2003. He denied ever visiting Epstein’s non-public island within the Virgin Islands, the place a variety of the late financier’s alleged crimes occurred, and maintained that he had not been involved with Epstein for greater than a decade earlier than his 2019 arrest.
“Whereas Mr. Epstein could very properly have attended any of the numerous lots of of White Home occasions or receptions throughout my eight years in workplace and been photographed with me as have been tens of 1000’s of people, I don’t recall encountering Mr. Epstein, or any particular interactions with him, whereas in workplace,” Invoice Clinton stated within the declaration.
The previous president additionally didn’t recall when he met convicted Epstein affiliate Ghislaine Maxwell or his interactions together with her, however stated she later was in a relationship with a mutual good friend.
“To be clear, I had no thought of Mr. Epstein’s or Ms. Maxwell’s legal actions,” the declaration stated. “And, no matter any intent both could have ever had, I didn’t take any motion for the aim of serving to them to keep away from any kind of scrutiny.”
In her deposition Thursday, Hillary Clinton reiterated that she had no information of Epstein or Maxwell’s crimes. When requested by reporters after the deposition whether or not she was assured her husband additionally had no information of Epstein’s crimes, Hillary Clinton responded, “I’m.”
“The chronology of the connection that he had with Epstein ended years, a number of years earlier than something about Epstein’s legal actions got here to gentle,” she stated.
On Friday night, Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado posted a photograph to social media that gave the impression to be of Invoice Clinton throughout his deposition. Together with the picture, she wrote: “‘What distinction, at this level, does it make?’ -HRC,” a reference to the same quote that then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made throughout a 2013 congressional listening to on the 2012 Benghazi assaults.
Hillary Clinton’s personal closed-door testimony Thursday was briefly halted after Boebert leaked a photograph of her deposition proceedings that was shared by right-wing commentator Benny Johnson, in an obvious violation of the Home committee’s guidelines for the deposition. Hillary Clinton referred to as the incident “very upsetting.”
Former presidents haven’t efficiently been compelled to testify earlier than Congress up to now. However a number of have voluntarily answered questions from committees, together with Presidents Gerald Ford in 1983, Harry Truman in 1955 and William Howard Taft a dozen instances. A number of sitting presidents have additionally appeared voluntarily.
