Former President Bill Clinton blasted House Republicans for hauling in his wife Hillary for questioning in the Jeffrey Epstein investigation.
Clinton, 79, confronted the lawmakers on Friday after the former secretary of state sat down for hours of grilling on Thursday in Chappaqua, New York.
“Before we start, I have to get personal. You made Hillary come in. She had nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein. Nothing,” Clinton said, according to his opening statement.
“She has no memory of even meeting him. She neither traveled with him nor visited any of his properties,” Clinton said. “Whether you subpoenaed 10 people or 10,000, including her was simply not right.”
The former president was facing mounting pressure to answer what he knew about the convicted sex offender after his picture appeared multiple times in the Epstein files with both the disgraced financier and unidentified women.
Clinton denied any knowledge of criminal activity and immediately distanced himself from Epstein.
“Though my brief acquaintance with Epstein ending years before his crimes came to light and though I never witnessed during our limited interactions any indication of what was truly going on, I am here to offer what little I know going on, I am here to offer what little I know so that it might prevent anything like this from ever happening again,” Clinton said.
He also directly addressed the photos of him that have come up in the Epstein files.
“First, I had no idea of the crimes Epstein was committing. 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,” Clinton said. “I know what I saw, and more importantly, what I didn’t see. I know what I did, and more importantly, what I didn’t do. I saw nothing, and I did nothing wrong.”
The former president went so far as to invoke his own experience growing up in his prepared statement.
“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 and led the call for justice for his crimes, not sweetheart deals," Clinton said.
The ex-president set some expectations low, indicating he would at times say he did not recall something, which he admitted might be “unsatisfying,” but warned he would not say something he was not sure of and argued it was a long time ago.
It came after lawmakers said his wife on Thursday indicated she was not familiar with things multiple times, in particular regarding the Clinton Global Initiative and deferred to her husband as she was in the Senate at the time.
But MAGA Rep. Anna Paulina Luna on Friday gave a quick update to the media soon after the deposition began and indicated the former president was being “very cooperative.”
