Bill Clinton deposition focused on Epstein flights, DC visits

• Bill Clinton questioned by House panel on Epstein connections
• Clinton denies meeting Epstein, calls Maxwell a casual acquaintance
• Both Clintons deny knowledge of Epstein's criminal activities

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The House Republican chairing an investigation of Jeffrey Epstein said his panel will question Bill Clinton on flights the former president took on Epstein’s private plane and visits the financier made to the White House during the Clinton presidency.

Clinton became the first former US president forced to testify to Congress as he is deposed behind closed doors by the House committee in Chappaqua, New York, where Clinton lives with his wife, former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

“No one’s accusing anyone of any wrongdoing, but I think the American people have a lot of questions," House Oversight Chair James Comer told reporters Friday before the Clinton deposition was set to begin.

The committee began questioning the former president shortly after he arrived at the local arts center where the panel is meeting, a person familiar with the proceedings told Bloomberg.

Hillary Clinton was questioned by the panel Thursday and told reporters afterward she is confident her husband knew nothing about Epstein’s crimes.

President Donald Trump and his allies have sought to put a spotlight on Epstein’s connections to Democrats, including the Clintons, amid public attention on the sex offender’s ties to the president and his associates, including Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and former senior adviser Steve Bannon.

Comer said Thursday after Hillary Clinton’s deposition that she “answered most of our questions” and that the committee “learned a lot.”

Hillary Clinton said she denied any association with Epstein during a “repetitive” hours-long deposition. Late in the afternoon, lawmakers questioning ranged afield to topics including UFOs to the so-called PizzaGate conspiracy theory that took hold during the 2016 presidential election, she said.

“It got quite unusual at the end,” the former first lady said.

She said she “never met” Epstein and described his associate Ghislaine Maxwell as a “casual acquaintance.”

Bill Clinton took several trips on Epstein’s private plane before Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to Florida state charges that included procurement of a minor to engage in prostitution. Epstein also donated $1,000 to Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign and $20,000 to Hillary Clinton’s 2000 US Senate campaign. A charity controlled by Epstein contributed $25,000 to the Clintons’ private foundation.

In an interview with the BBC in mid-February, Hillary Clinton said her husband had flown on Epstein’s private jet “for his charitable work,” and she didn’t recall ever meeting Epstein. She said she had met Maxwell “on a few occasions.”

One of those occasions was her daughter Chelsea’s wedding in 2010, where Maxwell is photographed in the background alongside other guests. Clinton said Thursday that Maxwell was the “plus-one” of another guest at the wedding.

Maxwell told Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche in a recorded interview last fall that at the time she was dating tech billionaire Ted Waitt, who she said was “very close” with Bill Clinton.

Maxwell was convicted in 2021 of recruiting girls for sexual abuse and participating in some of the assaults. She is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence.

Bill Clinton has said that he parted ways with Epstein many years before the financier’s 2019 death in a New York jail cell while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. Authorities ruled his death a suicide.

Photos of Bill Clinton featured in the first tranche of Epstein files released by the Justice Department in December, including one of the former president soaking in a hot tub and another swimming with Maxwell, garnered media attention.

House Democrats are demanding Trump follow the Clintons in testifying to congressional investigators on ties to Epstein.

The House committee’s subpoena to a former president “sets a precedent,” Representative Robert Garcia, the panel’s top-ranking Democrat, told reporters gathered outside the arts center.

“The person who actually appears more times in the files than the former president, who we want to speak with, is President Donald Trump,” Garcia told reporters.

White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said that Trump has been “totally exonerated on anything relating to Epstein” and has “done more for Epstein’s victims than anyone before him.”

Trump and both Clintons have denied any knowledge of Epstein’s criminal activities.

Hillary Clinton posted a defiant opening statement, chastising the panel for wasting time on “fishing expeditions” and stressed Trump should answer questions under oath.

“Instead, you have compelled me to testify, fully aware that I have no knowledge that would assist your investigation, in order to distract attention from President Trump’s actions and to cover them up despite legitimate calls for answers,” she said in the statement.

The Clintons yielded to Republican demands to appear before a House committee investigating Epstein after GOP lawmakers threatened to hold them both in contempt of Congress if they didn’t testify.

The Clintons said they’d offered to send sworn statements to the House committee as others who’d been subpoenaed to testify had done, but the Republican-led panel turned them down.