Former US president Bill Clinton will be interrogated by a congressional panel on Friday on his well-documented links to Jeffrey Epstein, as Democrats seek to shift focus onto President Donald Trump’s own ties to the convicted sex offender.
The most recent Epstein file leaks heavily highlight Clinton, who maintains that he severed his relationship with the disgraced billionaire well before the billionaire was found guilty of sexual charges in 2008.
Clinton has not been charged with a crime or the subject of a formal investigation, and his name alone in the documents made public by the Department of Justice does not suggest misconduct.
He comes after his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who boldly demanded in her testimony on Thursday that Trump, who shared ties with Epstein and Bill Clinton, testify before the panel.
“If this committee is serious about learning the truth about Epstein’s trafficking crimes… it would ask (Trump) directly under oath about the tens of thousands of times he shows up in the Epstein files,” she said in an opening statement published online.
The Clintons demanded that the depositions be open and shown on television, but they are being conducted behind closed doors. Bill Clinton criticized this practice, calling it a “kangaroo court.”
The former president is more at risk from the interrogation than his spouse since, although he has admitted to having frequent contact with Epstein, he has denied ever going to the dubious financier’s private Caribbean island.
Epstein was found guilty in 2008 of arranging sex with girls as young as 14 and was affiliated with the wealthy, well-known, and influential people of the globe.
In 2019, while on trial for sex trafficking, he passed away in a New York jail cell. It was determined that he killed himself.
In light of the Justice Department’s release of millions of new documents pertaining to its investigation of Epstein, the Republican-led House Oversight Committee is looking into individuals connected to him.
Hillary maintained that she had never been to Epstein’s island or flown on his aircraft.
The Democratic power couple consented to appear in the panel’s investigation after House Republicans threatened to hold the Clintons in contempt of Congress, despite their earlier refusal to comply with subpoenas.
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,” Hillary Clinton said in her opening remarks before the panel.
“Let me be as clear as I can. I do not.”
Democrats claim that rather than carrying out proper supervision, the inquiry is being used as a weapon to disparage Trump’s political rivals.
Although he has not been charged with any wrongdoing, Bill Clinton is prominently featured in the Justice Department’s collection of investigative files pertaining to Epstein.
One of the previously unreleased photos from the files shows the former president lounging in a hot tub, with a bold black rectangle blocking out part of the image.
Another shows Clinton swimming with a dark-haired woman who looks to be Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s accomplice.
Clinton has admitted to using Epstein’s private aircraft on multiple occasions in the early 2000s for humanitarian purposes connected to the Clinton Foundation.
Maxwell’s lawyer, David Markus, just declared that Trump and Clinton are “innocent of any wrongdoing.”
The Clintons live in Chappaqua, New York, where the depositions are taking place.
The Secret Service put up metal barricades around the arts facility where the depositions are taking place, and dozens of media have gathered in the affluent hamlet.
At the end of Hillary’s presentation, Republican committee chair James Comer stated that members had “a lot of questions for her husband tomorrow.”
