By Richard Cowan and Andy Sullivan
Feb 27 (Reuters) – Bill Clinton told lawmakers on Friday that he “saw nothing that gave me pause” when he spent time with Jeffrey Epstein, as the former president gave closed-door testimony about his relationship with the late sex offender.
In a prepared statement, Clinton told the House of Representatives Oversight Committee that he would not have flown on the late financier’s plane if he had known about his alleged sex trafficking of underage girls, and would have reported him if he did.
“We are only here because he hid it from everyone so well for so long,” Clinton said.
Clinton flew on Epstein’s plane several times in the early 2000s after he left office and before Epstein’s 2008 conviction of soliciting prostitution from a minor. A tranche of millions of documents released by the Justice Department includes photos of Clinton with women whose faces are redacted.
“I saw nothing, and I did nothing wrong,” Clinton said.
His testimony follows that of his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who told the panel on Thursday that she did not remember ever meeting Epstein and had nothing to share about his sex crimes.
She said she was also asked about UFOs and a 2016-era conspiracy theory during the seven-hour session.
The panel’s Republican chairman, Representative James Comer of Kentucky, has repeatedly said the Clintons are not accused of wrongdoing but should answer questions about Epstein’s involvement with their charitable foundation.
During a break in the testimony, Comer told reporters that Clinton told the committee that Donald Trump had never said anything to him to make him think the Republican president was involved in criminal activity with Epstein.
Democrats on the panel said that was not an accurate characterization and said it raised questions about Trump’s past statements.
They said the committee should call Trump to testify — a notion Comer has ruled out. “President Clinton’s presence here today under oath highlights the Donald Trump-sized gaping hole in Chairman Comer’s investigation,” said Democratic Representative James Walkinshaw of Virginia.
Democrats are also accusing Trump’s Justice Department of withholding records of a woman who accused Trump of sexually abusing her when she was a minor. The Justice Department has said it is looking at the material and will publish it if appropriate, and has also warned that the material includes unfounded accusations about Trump.
Trump’s name appears frequently in the Epstein files. He socialized extensively with Epstein in the 1990s and 2000s and says he broke off ties before Epstein’s 2008 conviction. Authorities have not accused him of criminal wrongdoing in connection with Epstein, but the association has dogged him for decades.
At the White House, Trump expressed sympathy for Democrat Clinton.
“I don’t like seeing him deposed,” Trump said. “But they certainly went after me more than that.”
The Clintons agreed to testify near their main residence of Chappaqua, New York, after the House threatened to hold them in contempt of Congress for refusing to cooperate. Some Democrats supported the move.
Both Clintons accuse Republicans of conducting a partisan exercise designed to protect Trump from scrutiny, noting that others in the inquiry were allowed to submit written statements rather than testify in person.
Epstein died in jail in 2019 while facing federal sex-trafficking crimes. His death was ruled a suicide.
(Reporting by Richard Cowan and Andy Sullivan; Additional reporting by Katharine Jackson; Editing by Sergio Non and Alistair Bell)
