Former US President Bill Clinton told lawmakers on Friday that he had no knowledge of Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes, and had stopped associating with the financier long before his wrongdoing came to light.
“I had no idea of the crimes Epstein was committing,” Clinton said in the opening statement of his deposition in the Republican-controlled House Oversight Committee’s Epstein investigation, which he shared on X on Friday. “I saw nothing, and I did nothing wrong.”
“As someone who grew up in a home with domestic abuse, not only would I not have flown on his plane if I had any inkling of what he was doing—I would have turned him in myself and led the call for justice for his crimes, not sweetheart deals,” he continued.
Clinton is testifying before the House Oversight Committee after the committee subpoenaed both the former President and his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as part of the panel’s inquiry into Epstein. Hillary Clinton appeared before the committee on Thursday.
The depositions are being conducted behind closed doors, but videos and transcripts of the proceedings will be made public afterwards, a committee spokesperson confirmed.
The chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Republican Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, told reporters mid-afternoon on Friday that Bill Clinton had so far undergone about two hours of questioning from lawmakers—one hour from Republicans on the panel, and a second hour from Democrats on the panel, The Associated Press reported.
Comer added that Oversight Republicans would have another hour to question the former President, after which the committee would take a break.
Also on Friday, President Donald Trump told reporters, “I like Bill Clinton and I don’t like seeing him deposed.”
In January, the Clintons refused to testify in the inquiry, saying that they had already shared what little information they had about Epstein and Epstein’s longtime associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, with lawmakers.
The couple ultimately agreed to testify in the panel’s investigation earlier this month after Republicans sought to hold them in contempt of Congress.
Bill Clinton is among a number of high-profile people who had ties to Epstein. The former President’s name and photo appear a number of times in the so-called “Epstein files,” the documents related to the investigations into Epstein that have been released by the Justice Department.
