The Republican-led House Oversight Committee released videos Monday of the closed-door depositions of former president Bill Clinton and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton as part of its ongoing investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Bill Clinton appeared before the committee on Friday, marking the first time a former president had been compelled to testify before Congress under a subpoena.
During his lengthy deposition, the former president sought to distance himself from Epstein, saying he had no knowledge of Epstein’s crimes and stopped associating with him years before his first guilty plea, in 2008.
“I had no idea of the crimes Epstein was committing. 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 said in his opening statement, which he shared on social media Friday. “I saw nothing, and I did nothing wrong.”
In her hours-long deposition Thursday, Hillary Clinton said she did not know Epstein and had known Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell only “casually, as an acquaintance.” Hillary Clinton derided the deposition as “political theater” and sharply questioned why she was being deposed.
House Republicans have issued subpoenas to several people — mostly Democrats — mentioned in the millions of files related to the federal government’s Epstein investigation that have been released by the Justice Department. They have not called in President Donald Trump, who had a long-standing friendship with Epstein. The president has said that he knew Epstein socially in Palm Beach, Florida, and that they had a falling out in the mid-2000s. Trump has maintained that he did not know about Epstein’s criminal behavior.
Both Clintons asked that their deposition be held in public. Rep. James Comer (R-Kentucky), the committee’s chairman, denied the request but has signaled the possibility of follow-up public hearings. The depositions happened in the Chappaqua Performing Arts Center in Chappaqua, New York, where the Clintons live.
Hillary Clinton, in her opening statement, said the committee has acted to “protect one political party and one public official, rather than to seek truth and justice for the victims and survivors,” referring to Republicans and Trump.
Transcripts of the depositions will not be released Monday because attorneys for the Clintons have to review them before they can be released, the panel said in a statement.
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