Bill Clinton faces grilling over Epstein ties
Former president Bill Clinton is testifying before members of Congress investigating convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and responding to his contacts with the disgraced financier more than two decades ago.
The testimony, held behind closed doors in Chappaqua, New York, will be the first time a former president has been forced to testify to Congress.
This came a day after Clinton’s wife, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, met with congressional representatives for her own testimony.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump is heading to Texas on Friday to talk about energy and economic policies amid the Senate Republican primary race.
Bill Clinton was also not accused of any wrongdoing.
But politicians are grappling with what accountability looks like in the United States at a time when men around the world are being pushed out of high-powered posts after Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to charges of soliciting prostitution from an underage girl in Florida.
Hillary Clinton told politicians she had no knowledge of how Epstein sexually abused underage girls and had no recollection of meeting him.
But Bill Clinton will need to answer questions about his well-documented relationship with Epstein and his ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, even though they date back to the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Hillary Clinton said Thursday that she expects her husband to testify that he had no knowledge of Epstein’s sexual abuse when they knew each other.
Republicans are relishing the opportunity to examine the former Democratic president under oath.
“The Clintons have not answered many, if any, questions about their relationships with or knowledge of Epstein and Maxwell,” James Comer, the Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said in a statement Thursday. he said.
“Right now, no one is accusing the Clintons of any wrongdoing.”
Republicans have wanted to question Bill Clinton about Epstein for years, particularly because of conspiracy theories that emerged following Epstein’s 2019 suicide in a New York jail cell while he was facing sex trafficking charges.
Those calls came to a head late last year, when several photos of the former president emerged in the Justice Department’s initial case files against Epstein and Maxwell, a British socialite who was convicted of sex trafficking in December 2021 but has pleaded innocent.
Bill Clinton was photographed on an airplane sitting next to a woman whose face had been corrected, with his arm around her.
Another photo showed Clinton and Maxwell in the pool with another person whose face had been corrected.
Epstein also visited the White House several times during Clinton’s presidency, and the pair later went on many international trips together for humanitarian work.
Before the testimony, Bill Clinton insisted he had limited knowledge of Epstein and was unaware of any sexual misconduct he committed.
“I think the chronology of his connection to Epstein ended several years before anything came to light regarding Epstein’s criminal activities,” Hillary Clinton said at the end of her testimony on Thursday. he said.
Comer promised a thorough questioning of the former president.
He claimed that Hillary Clinton repeatedly deferred questions about Epstein to her husband.
Democrats backing the effort to get answers from Bill Clinton argue it sets a precedent that should also apply to Republican President Donald Trump, who had his own relationship with Epstein.
“We immediately demand that President Trump testify before our committee and demand his impeachment before Oversight Republicans and Democrats,” Robert Garcia, the committee’s top Democrat, said in a statement Thursday. he said.
Comer backed off that idea, saying Trump was answering the press’ questions about Epstein.
