Bill Clinton is set to face questioning by a Republican-led House panel over his past ties to Jeffrey Epstein, as Democrats press the committee to also demand sworn testimony from former President Donald Trump about his own connections to the late financier.
The former president features repeatedly in recently disclosed Justice Department files related to Epstein, who was convicted in 2008 for soliciting sex from girls as young as 14 and died by suicide in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. Clinton has not been accused of a crime or formally investigated, and mere appearance in the records does not indicate wrongdoing. He has said he ended contact with Epstein well before the 2008 conviction.
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Clinton’s appearance comes a day after his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, testified behind closed doors before the House Oversight Committee. In remarks released online, she urged the panel to summon Trump and question him under oath about his mentions in the Epstein files, saying the inquiry should seek “the full truth.” She added that she never flew on Epstein’s plane or visited his private island.
The depositions are being held in Chappaqua, New York, where the Clintons live. Reporters descended on the Westchester County hamlet as the Secret Service erected metal barricades around the arts center hosting the interviews. Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., said after Hillary Clinton’s appearance that members had “a lot of questions” for her husband.
Both Clintons initially fought subpoenas to testify in the probe but agreed to appear after House Republicans threatened to hold them in contempt of Congress. Democrats have accused the majority of weaponizing the investigation to target Trump’s political rivals rather than conducting impartial oversight.
The committee has intensified its scrutiny following the Justice Department’s disclosure of a large new trove of investigative material on Epstein. Among the previously unseen images circulating from the files are photographs of Bill Clinton, including one of him reclining in a hot tub with part of the image redacted and another of him swimming alongside a dark-haired woman resembling Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s longtime associate. Clinton has acknowledged flying on Epstein’s private jet several times in the early 2000s, which he said was for Clinton Foundation-related humanitarian work.
The proceedings are closed to the public, a format the Clintons opposed. Bill Clinton has criticized the process, likening aspects of the inquiry to a “kangaroo court.” The couple had pushed for the interviews to be held in public and televised.
Trump and Clinton both moved in elite circles where Epstein cultivated influence, though attorneys for Maxwell have said publicly that neither former president has been implicated in wrongdoing. The former president’s allies argue the committee is right to examine high-profile figures who associated with Epstein; Democrats say any credible inquiry must include Trump’s testimony and a full accounting of Epstein’s social and financial networks.
The House Oversight Committee has not announced when or whether it will call Trump. For now, the panel’s focus is on Clinton’s testimony, which is expected to cover his interactions with Epstein and staff, his travels on Epstein’s plane, and any knowledge he had of Epstein’s conduct before or after the 2008 case.
As the committee works through the newly released documents, both parties are framing the inquiry as a test of credibility: Republicans asserting they are following leads wherever they go, and Democrats insisting that a fair probe must apply the same scrutiny to Trump that it now brings to Clinton.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
