Bill Clinton denies wrongdoing at grilling on Epstein ties

CHAPPAQUA, UNITED STATES - Former US president Bill Clinton denied wrongdoing at a Congressional panel on Friday on his well-documented links to Jeffrey Epstein, as Democrats seek to shift focus toward Donald Trump's own ties to the convicted sex offender.

Clinton features prominently throughout the Epstein files, but he insists that he broke ties well before the disgraced billionaire's 2008 conviction for sex offences.

"I saw nothing, and I did nothing wrong," Clinton said in his opening statement, shared on social media.

The Republican chair of the House committee probing Epstein, James Comer, said ahead of Bill Clinton's deposition, he looked forward to "asking lots of questions."

But Democrats on the committee reiterated their call for Trump to be quizzed.

"Let's be real, we are talking to the wrong president," said Democrat committee member Suhas Subramanyam.

Clinton did not name Trump directly but said, "No person is above the law, even presidents -- especially presidents."

Being mentioned in the files released by the US Department of Justice does not imply wrongdoing, and Clinton has not been accused of a crime or formally investigated.

He follows his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who testified Thursday, defiantly calling for President Trump -- who, like Bill Clinton, had many ties with Epstein -- to appear before the panel.

The lawmakers should ask Trump "directly under oath about the tens of thousands of times he shows up in the Epstein files," she said.

The depositions are being held behind closed doors, with Bill Clinton likening the proceedings to a "kangaroo court." The couple has called for them to be open and televised.

The grilling comes with greater peril for the former president than for his wife, as he has acknowledged extensive interactions with Epstein but said he never visited the financier's private Caribbean island.

Epstein mingled with the world's rich, famous and powerful, and was convicted in 2008 for soliciting sex from girls as young as 14.

He died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while facing trial on sex trafficking charges. His death was ruled a suicide.

The Republican-led House Oversight Committee is probing those who were linked to Epstein in light of the Justice Department's disclosures of millions of new documents related to its investigation of him.

The Clintons had initially rejected subpoenas ordering them to testify, but the Democratic power couple agreed to do so after House Republicans threatened to hold them in contempt of Congress.

NEWLY RELEASED PICTURES

Hillary Clinton said in her opening statement to the panel that it "justified its subpoena to me based on its assumption that I have information regarding the investigations into the criminal activities of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell."

"Let me be as clear as I can. I do not."

Democrats say the investigation is being weaponised to attack Trump's political opponents rather than to conduct legitimate oversight.

Previously unseen photographs from the files include one showing Bill Clinton reclining in a hot tub, part of the image obscured by a stark black rectangle.

In another, Clinton is pictured swimming alongside a dark-haired woman who appears to be Epstein's accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell.

Bill Clinton has acknowledged flying on Epstein's private plane several times in the early 2000s for Clinton Foundation-related humanitarian work, while Hillary said she did not know Epstein.

"Jeffrey Epstein was in the White House 17 times while Bill Clinton was President. We know that Bill Clinton flew on Jeffrey Epstein's plane at least 27 times. So those are questions that we're going to ask," said Comer.

Clinton said in his opening statement, "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."

The depositions are being held in Chappaqua, New York, where the Clintons reside.

Dozens of journalists have converged on the wealthy hamlet and the Secret Service erected metal barricades around the arts center where the depositions are happening.