Clinton distances himself from Epstein in testimony

Former US president Bill Clinton distanced himself from convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in closed-door depositions with politicians, according to videos that were released on Monday.

The recordings of the depositions, which spanned hours over two days last week, show how Mr Clinton told the committee he had ended his relationship with Epstein years before the financier entered a 2008 guilty plea to soliciting prostitution from an underage girl.

His wife, former first lady and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, told the committee she never even recalled meeting Epstein.

Their closed-door interviews before the House Oversight Committee were taken under oath on Thursday and Friday.

The Clintons’ testimony came as politicians are trying to meet demands for a reckoning over Epstein, who killed himself in 2019 in New York while facing charges for sex trafficking and abusing underage girls. High-status men around the world have been forced into resignations because of revelations about their relationships with Epstein, but there are few signs in the US of serious legal consequences.

The former president said he first remembered meeting Epstein when he flew aboard the financier’s private jet in 2002 for the Clintons’ humanitarian work and they parted ways the year after.

“There’s nothing that I saw when I was around him that made me realise he was trafficking women,” he told the committee.

Epstein visited the White House numerous times during Clinton’s presidency and there are photos of them shaking hands. Mr Clinton said he did not recall those interactions.

In response to a Democratic member’s questions about a photo that showed him in a pool with a woman whose face was redacted, the former president said he did not know the woman and did not engage in sexual activity with her.

He said the photo was from a trip to Brunei for charitable work and a number of people in their travel party were swimming. He also said he was not aware that one young woman, who was ostensibly working as a masseuse and gave him a neck massage on one flight, was a victim of sexual abuse.

Whether the subject was a note Mr Clinton wrote for Epstein’s 50th birthday or their travel together for the Clinton Foundation, he described their relationship as little more than “cordial” and said Epstein provided his private jet for humanitarian trips in exchange for discussing politics and economics with him.

“We were friendly, but I didn’t know him well enough to say we were friends,” he said.

He said he had once visited Epstein’s townhouse in New York City, but said repeatedly he had never visited Epstein’s private island or other properties.

Asked by Republicans whether they had talked about young women or girls together, Mr Clinton responded emphatically: “No.”

The former president acknowledged he maintained a closer relationship with Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s former girlfriend and confidant. But he maintained that was largely because of close mutual connections. He also said “she has to be punished” for her conviction on sex trafficking charges.

Mr Clinton made clear he believed it was important for anyone, including presidents, to come forward and testify to their knowledge of Epstein.

He also shared how he and President Donald Trump had briefly discussed Epstein at a charity golf tournament more than 20 years ago. He said Mr Trump had never “said anything to me to make me think he was involved in anything improper with regard to Epstein,” but also remarked that those two men had a falling-out over a real estate deal.

Republican politicians left the deposition pointing to Mr Clinton’s words and arguing that it showed there is no evidence that Mr Trump did anything wrong in his own relationship with Epstein.

Democrats, meanwhile, said the testimony counters what Mr Trump has said more recently about why he and Epstein had a falling-out.

The president has told reporters they had a disagreement because Epstein had hired people away from Mr Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida.

In her testimony the previous day, Mrs Clinton started to lose her patience with Republicans’ repeated questions about whether she had any connections to Epstein.

“I am so tired of answering that question,” she said at one point.

Reperesentative Lauren Boebert asked whether there were emails in the case files on Epstein that referenced pizzagate, which posited that Democratic Party insiders harboured child sex slaves in a Washington pizza parlour.

Mrs Clinton responded by saying, “I can’t believe you’re even referencing it” and reminding her that the conspiracy theory resulted in a man bringing a gun to a Washington restaurant.

Republicans did find some agreement with the former secretary of state when it came to providing more disclosure on what information the government has gathered on UFOs.

Representative Eric Burlison asked for her opinion on releasing more information and she agreed any releases should not include national security information but that “this is an issue of real importance to so many people”.