In his appearance in a closed-door session before a congressional panel, Bill Clinton, the former President of the United States, said in a statement that he did not observe anything suspicious in his dealings with the late financier Jeffrey Epstein.
The appearance was in response to questions from the House Oversight Committee regarding his association with Epstein, who was convicted in 2008 for soliciting prostitution from a minor.
In his appearance, Clinton said that if he knew about the sexual abuse of minors, he would not have accepted flights on Epstein’s private jet.
“We are only here because he hid it from everyone so well for so long,” Clinton said in his statement. “I saw nothing, and I did nothing wrong,” he added.
Records show that Clinton took flights on Epstein’s jet at least four times in the early 2000s, after leaving office and before Epstein’s conviction.
Photographs accompanying Justice Department documents show Clinton accompanying women whose faces were redacted.
Clinton’s appearance followed a seven-hour appearance by his wife, Hillary Clinton, a former US Secretary of State, who testified before the panel on Thursday that she had no knowledge of a meeting between her and Epstein, as well as no information to share about Epstein’s sex offenses.
Clinton was also asked questions unrelated to Epstein, including questions about unidentified flying objects and a conspiracy theory from 2016.
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The committee, led by Republican US Representative James Comer from Kentucky, has maintained that the Clinton couple is not a subject of their investigation for any crime.
The committee has said that their focus is the relationship between the Clinton Foundation and Epstein.
During a break in Friday’s proceedings, Clinton testified that he had no information that would suggest that his predecessor, now-US President Donald Trump, was involved in any crime with Epstein, according to US Representative James Comer.
However, Democrats disagreed with the Republican leader’s account of Clinton’s testimony, which raised questions about Trump’s previous statements about Epstein.
Representative James Walkinshaw of Virginia, a Democrat on the committee, complained about the scope of the investigation, stating that it was incomplete. “President Clinton’s appearance here today under oath underscores the Donald Trump-sized gaping hole in Chairman Comer’s investigation,” Walkinshaw said.
Democrats also accused the Trump-era Department of Justice of failing to produce information on a woman who claimed to have been subjected to sexual abuse by Trump when she was still a minor.
The Department of Justice stated that they were reviewing the information and would release it if they found it appropriate.
Trump’s connection to Epstein is often mentioned in the documents released by the authorities.
Trump was known to have been friends with Epstein in the 1990s and early 2000s but claims to have parted ways with Epstein before the latter was convicted in 2008.
Trump has not been accused of any criminal activity related to Epstein by law enforcement officials, although the connection between them has been under public scrutiny for decades.
At the White House, Trump expressed his sympathy for Clinton, stating, “I don’t like seeing him deposed. But they certainly went after me more than that.”
Both Bill and Hillary Clinton have agreed to testify before Congress for questioning near their home in Chappaqua, New York.
The decision to testify was reached after the House threatened to hold them in contempt for failing to cooperate initially.
Some Democrats support the decision to hold Bill Clinton for questioning as a measure to ensure his testimony is not written but oral.
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Jeffrey Epstein was a wealthy financier who had connections to both social and political circles. He died while incarcerated in a federal jail cell in 2019 while awaiting a trial for sex trafficking charges. The investigation into his activities has resulted in various congressional investigations into his relationships with powerful individuals.
The Oversight Committee has clarified that Bill Clinton’s decision to testify before Congress is not based on any suspicion of criminal activity but is intended to determine the degree of his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
The committee also sought to determine whether there was any relationship between Jeffrey Epstein and charitable organizations affiliated with Bill Clinton.
The Justice Department had previously released millions of pages of documents pertaining to Epstein’s interactions, financial dealings, and social circles. Some of the documents contain photos of influential people, the identities of whom have been redacted, making the documents highly interesting for the public and the media.
Clinton assured the panel that he had no idea about any illegal activities of Epstein during their meetings, and had he known, he would have certainly reported the matter.
The committee is still reviewing the statements of the witnesses associated with Epstein. Clinton’s hearing, although focused on the interactions between Clinton and Epstein, may not be the only hearing, as the Democrats have already indicated the possibility of hearing the statements of other people, including Trump, in the near future.