Bill Clinton On Epstein Relationship: ‘I Saw Nothing, And I Did Nothing Wrong’ | EUROtoday

Former President Bill Clinton flatly insisted Friday there was nothing improper about his relationship with the intercourse predator and financier Jeffrey Epstein.

“I had no idea of the crimes Epstein was committing,” Clinton informed members of Congress throughout a sworn deposition wherein lawmakers deliberate to ask about photographs of him in Esptein’s firm.

“No matter how many photos you show me, I have two things that at the end of the day matter more than your interpretation of those 20-year-old photos,” Clinton mentioned, in response to a written opening assertion he posted on-line. “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.”

House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) mentioned earlier than the depostion that Republicans would ask Clinton concerning the pictures of him with Epstein.

“I think everyone’s seen there are a lot of photos that have been released by the Department of Justice, as well as to say there’s a lot of email correspondence that included President Clinton,” Comer informed reporters earlier than heading into the deposition within the Clintons’ hometown of Chappaqua, New York.

During a break within the listening to, Comer informed reporters that in response to a Democrat’s query about whether or not the committee ought to interview President Donald Trump, Clinton mentioned it was as much as the committee and that he hadn’t heard Trump say something “to make me think he was involved” in Epstein’s crimes.

Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), the committee’s high Democrat, mentioned it wasn’t an correct characterization of what Clinton mentioned. He had mentioned on the outset there could be a critical deposition.

“We have real questions that deserve serious answers from former President Clinton, and we have said from day one that Democrats want to talk to anyone, whether they are a Republican or a Democrat, no matter how powerful we are with the position that they’ve been in,” Garcia mentioned.

While Democrats declined to share particulars from the room, Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) prompt Clinton gave them materials they may use to query Trump concerning the finish of their friendship twenty years in the past.

“I can tell you we all now have a lot of new questions that we have to raise as it relates to the reasoning on why Donald Trump had a falling out with Jeffrey Epstein in the first place,” Frost informed reporters.

Images of the previous president have figured prominently within the batches of information the Justice Department has launched, beneath orders from Congress, from its archive of investigative materials from the intercourse trafficking case towards Epstein, who died whereas going through costs in 2019. President Donald Trump and different well-known individuals have popped up repeatedly within the information as nicely.

Neither Clinton nor Trump has been implicated in Epstein’s crimes.

Flight passenger manifests present Clinton traveled repeatedly on Epstein’s personal jet within the early 2000s. The former president has mentioned he accepted the flights as a result of the aircraft might accommodate his employees and Secret Service element on journeys to advertise his worldwide charity work. He’s mentioned he was unaware of Epstein’s intercourse crimes, which got here to public consideration years later.

Comer’s committee subpoenaed each Bill and Hillary Clinton for his or her testimony about Epstein on a near-unanimous bipartisan foundation.

During her deposition on Thursday, the previous first girl deferred a number of inquiries to her husband, lawmakers mentioned, together with queries concerning the photographs, at the least certainly one of which seems to point out Clinton within the firm of a youthful girl on Epstein’s aircraft.

“She didn’t want to answer any questions about any of that, and deferred most, if not all, of those questions to her husband, and he will be thoroughly asked about that today,” mentioned Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.).