Former President Bill Clinton testified Friday before the House Oversight Committee regarding his past association with Jeffrey Epstein, telling lawmakers, “I saw nothing, and I did nothing wrong.”
Clinton appeared in Chappaqua, New York, where he delivered an opening statement before questioning began. He said he had “no idea of the crimes Epstein was committing.”
“I know what I saw, and more importantly, what I didn’t see,” Clinton said. “I know what I did, and more importantly, what I didn’t do.”
“I saw nothing, and I did nothing wrong,” he repeated under oath.
Clinton also criticized Republican lawmakers for requiring former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to testify a day earlier. “You made Hillary come in,” he said. “She had nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein. Nothing.”
“She has no memory of even meeting him,” Clinton added. “She neither traveled with him nor visited any of his properties.”
“Whether you subpoenaed 10 people or 10,000, including her was simply not right,” he told the committee.
Hillary Clinton testified Thursday in the same location, stating she never met Epstein and deferring questions about her husband’s relationship with the financier, according to the Daily Mail.
Newly released photographs from Department of Justice files were presented to lawmakers during the investigation. One image shows Clinton aboard a private jet with an unidentified woman.
Another photograph shows Clinton in a hot tub alongside Ghislaine Maxwell, whose face was partially redacted in the image. Maxwell is serving a 20-year federal prison sentence related to sex trafficking minors.
Clinton addressed the images during his statement, as the Daily Mail reported.
“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,” he said.
He stated that his association with Epstein was limited and ended before the financier’s crimes became publicly known. “By the time it came to light with his 2008 guilty plea, I had long stopped associating with him,” Clinton said.
The former president acknowledged that he would likely repeat the phrase “I don’t recall” in response to certain questions. “That might be unsatisfying,” he said. “But I’m not going to say something I’m not sure of.”
“This was all a long time ago,” Clinton added. “And I am bound by my oath not to speculate, or to guess.”
Clinton also referenced his personal background.
“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,” he said.
He concluded his opening remarks by telling lawmakers, “Since I am under oath, I will not falsely state that I am looking forward to your questions. But I am ready to answer them to the best of my abilities.”
The deposition comes amid continued congressional review of Epstein’s connections to high-profile individuals. At the time of publication, committee members had not released a summary of Clinton’s full testimony.
