Bill Clinton to testify before House panel over Epstein ties

In what could be a tense confrontation between the former Democratic leader and President Donald Trump’s fellow Republicans, former US President Bill Clinton is set to provide closed-door testimony on Friday before a congressional committee examining matters related to the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The session comes a day after former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appeared before the same panel. She told lawmakers she had no recollection of meeting Epstein and said she had no information relevant to his criminal activities. Her testimony was delivered privately to the House Oversight Committee as part of its broader review of Epstein-related records.

Bill Clinton, however, flew on Epstein’s plane several times in the early 2000s after he left office, and a tranche of millions of documents released by the Justice Department includes photos of him with women whose faces are redacted. He has denied wrongdoing and expressed regret for his association.

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The panel’s Republican chairman, Representative James Comer of Kentucky, says the Clintons are not accused of wrongdoing but must answer questions about Epstein’s involvement with their charitable foundation.

They agreed to testify near their main residence of Chappaqua, New York, after the House of Representatives threatened to hold them in contempt of Congress for refusing to cooperate. Some Democrats supported the move.

Both Clintons accuse Republicans of conducting a partisan exercise designed to protect President Donald Trump from scrutiny, noting that others in the inquiry were allowed to submit written statements rather than testify in person.

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Democrats say the panel should also subpoena Trump, whose name appears frequently in the Epstein-related files. Trump socialized extensively with Epstein in the 1990s and 2000s, before Epstein’s 2008 conviction of soliciting prostitution from a minor.

Democrats are also accusing Trump’s Justice Department of withholding records of a woman who accused Trump of sexually abusing her when she was a minor. The Justice Department has said it is looking at the material in question and will publish it if appropriate.

The department has previously cautioned that the material it has released includes unfounded accusations and sensationalist claims about Trump, and authorities have not accused him of any criminal wrongdoing in connection with Epstein.

Epstein died in jail in 2019 while facing federal sex-trafficking crimes. His death was ruled a suicide.

With inputs from agencies