Former President Bill Clinton told the House Oversight Committee on Friday that he never witnessed or knew of crimes by Jeffrey Epstein but would offer any information he could.
He sat for a deposition with the committee in Chappaqua, New York, a day after his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Lawmakers from both parties said the former president was cooperative and fully answered lawmakers’ questions about his relationship with Epstein.
The former president appears in multiple photos with Epstein but has not been accused of wrongdoing related to the convicted sex offender.
“I have two things that at the end of the day matter more than your interpretation of those 20-year-old photos,” Bill Clinton said in an opening statement he shared on social media. “I know what I saw, and more importantly, what I didn’t see. I know what I did, and more importantly, what I didn’t do. I saw nothing, and I did nothing wrong.”
“Even with 20/20 hindsight, I saw nothing that ever gave me pause,” he added later.
Committee members from both parties seemed satisfied by the extent and depth of Clinton’s answers when they spoke to reporters on Friday
“I think everyone would agree that he’s been very cooperative,” Rep. Robert Garcia said. “He’s actually answering the questions fairly, to the best of his ability… I think he’s been pretty interested in answering all the questions of both Republicans and the Democrats.”
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna also called Clinton cooperative, and said that she believed Epstein was targeting powerful and influential individuals like the Clintons and President Donald Trump for an intelligence-gathering operation, but she did not go into further details.
“Jeffrey Epstein was running an intelligence-gathering operation in my professional opinion, I do believe it was a honeypot operation,” Luna said.
Democrats once again called for Trump to be deposed, but Republicans did not seem to budge in their view that Trump didn’t need to be questioned.
Chair James Comer said Clinton was asked whether the committee should depose Trump and the former president said it was up to them to decide. Clinton said Trump never indicated to him he knew of Epstein’s crimes or spoke about Epstein, according to Comer.
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