Bill and Hillary Clinton are ‘hunkering down’ forward of Epstein depositions this week, report claims | EUROtoday

Former President Bill Clinton and former first girl Hillary Clinton are “hunkering down” forward of their depositions on the late convicted intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein this week, in line with a brand new report.

The media buzz round redacted authorities recordsdata associated to Epstein and their subsequent launch has introduced recent scrutiny to those that had been in or suspected of being within the disgraced financier’s social circle.

Many have questioned the decades-old friendship between President Donald Trump and Epstein. But Bill Clinton’s relationship with the convicted intercourse offender has additionally been questioned. Neither Trump nor the Clintons have been accused of legal wrongdoing associated to Epstein.

The Clintons initially refused to testify within the House of Representatives investigation into Epstein, however have since agreed amid the risk to carry them in contempt of Congress. Hillary’s deposition is predicted to be on Thursday and Bill’s on Friday.

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The depositions will happen within the Clintons’ present hometown of Chappaqua, New York, and Republicans are hoping to launch video of the interviews days later, in line with a CNN supply.

The Clintons and members of the House Oversight Committee have agreed to a number of speaking factors for the depositions, which embody the alleged mismanagement of the federal investigation into Epstein and his longtime affiliate Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s 2019 suicide and the way Epstein and Maxwell sought to curry favor to guard themselves, an individual aware of the matter advised CNN.

Maxwell is serving 20 years in jail for serving to Epstein intercourse visitors minor ladies.

The depositions are additionally anticipated to go over broader matters resembling potential violations of ethics guidelines in reference to elected officers and the way the federal government may battle in opposition to sex-trafficking rings.

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The Independent has reached out to a consultant for Bill Clinton for remark about his and Hillary’s deposition preparation.

The Department of Justice has launched thousands and thousands of paperwork associated to Epstein after being compelled to take action by the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Included within the paperwork are photos of Bill Clinton, resembling a photograph of him in a sizzling tub alongside somebody whose face was redacted, one in every of him and Epstein sporting matching silky shirts and one other of him swimming with Maxwell.

Days after Epstein was arrested on federal intercourse trafficking prices in 2019, Bill Clinton’s spokesperson Angel Ureña admitted the previous president traveled on Epstein’s personal airplane, however mentioned he “knows nothing about the terrible crimes” the disgraced financier had both pleaded responsible to or was accused of.

Epstein pleaded responsible to soliciting prostitution from a minor in Florida in 2008.

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The journeys Clinton took in 2002 and 2003 “included stops in connection with the work of” his nonprofit, the Clinton Foundation, Ureña mentioned.

While Clinton had met Epstein at his workplace and his condominium in New York within the early 2000s, in line with Ureña, he had by no means been to his personal island, the place Epstein was accused of trafficking underage ladies to earlier than sexually assaulting them.

Ureña added that Clinton had “not spoken to Epstein in well over a decade” in his 2019 assertion.

Hillary Clinton not too long ago advised the BBC she by no means met Epstein however did encounter Maxwell “on a few occasions.”

“We don’t have anything to cover. We have known as for the total launch of those [Epstein] recordsdata repeatedly. We suppose daylight is the most effective disinfectant,” Hillary mentioned.