Washington — Former President Bill Clinton, in an hours-long deposition before the House Oversight Committee last week, denied any knowledge of the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell but provided lawmakers with a window into how and why he came to know the convicted sex offenders.
The House Oversight Committee on Monday released video of last week’s depositions with both Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as part of its investigation into Epstein. Hillary Clinton testified last Thursday, while Bill Clinton appeared before the committee a day later. The video of Bill Clinton’s testimony runs 4 hours and 33 minutes, while Hillary Clinton’s testimony is 4 hours and 35 minutes.
The depositions took place behind closed doors in Chappaqua, New York, the Clintons’ hometown. It capped what Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, the Republican chairman of the committee, described as a lengthy effort to secure testimony from the couple about their knowledge of Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who is in prison on sex trafficking charges.
Here are some of the highlights from their testimony.
Watch Bill Clinton’s Epstein deposition
Watch Hillary Clinton’s deposition
The Clintons have repeatedly said that they had no knowledge of Epstein or Maxwell’s crimes and said so in their opening statements to the committee.
Bill Clinton told the committee that it was his former treasury secretary and then-Harvard University president Larry Summers, who made the introduction to Epstein, some time after the end of his presidency.
“He said he was calling because a man named Jeffrey Epstein, who had made a substantial commitment of several million dollars … to brain research and that he was an information-hungry person, and he wanted to spend some time talking to me about economics and politics,” Clinton recalled.
He said Summers had told him Epstein had a massive plane and would take Clinton, his staff, his Secret Service detail — and anyone else he wanted — as Clinton was working on setting up a global network to provide AIDs medicine to as many people as possible, as quickly as possible.
He said his first memory of meeting Epstein was in 2002 during a flight he took on his plane. The former president testified that he took four or five flights on Epstein’s plane to Asia, Africa and northern Europe for his philanthropic work through the Clinton Foundation.
Clinton told the committee, “I never saw anything that I knew was illegal.” Asked whether anyone on the flights he took on Epstein’s plane was under the age of 18, he replied, “To the best of my knowledge there was not. If there was and I knew it, I would be uncomfortable.”
The former president described Epstein as a “vacuum cleaner” of information at first — he had a lot of questions for Clinton and wanted to know “what did I think of derivatives trading? Did I think that the stock market was properly regulated or did it need more?”
Clinton said that “it was great for the first, you know, two or three, four or five conversations, but I could tell that it was like, I mean, you guys are in politics. Don’t you ever feel like sometimes somebody’s talking to you, and then they’re just checking the box and they gotta go do something else and be somebody else would be? That’s just the way I felt.”
On a trip that was four hours or longer, Clinton said, “I’d give him an hour.” He also told lawmakers he asked Epstein why he was willing to finance Clinton’s trips and give him access to his plane.
He said Epstein told him, “‘I think you did a good job as president and you managed to get reelected and you’re the first Democrat in 60 years that got reelected. I want to know what happened and I want to understand it.'”
Clinton said Epstein wasn’t a friend but “wasn’t just an acquaintance either.”
“I felt friendly toward him, but he was, as I said in my book, odd,” the former president said. “He — there was always something, a little holding back and he — and I could tell.” He said Epstein never asked him for introductions to any leaders or foreign secretaries. Epstein records that were released by the Justice Department show Epstein asked others for such introductions.
He also described Epstein as “very straightforward” and said “after a while, it was obvious that he had done what he intended to do. And he was kind of going through the motions and he didn’t really care about what I really cared about — this AIDS thing.”
Bill Clinton’s relationship with Epstein ended in 2003, he said, because there were other donors whom he knew better and who cared more about his foundation’s work.
“I thought we had a chance to build something that would revolutionize the treatment of all mass illnesses, same thing with tuberculosis and malaria, and sure enough, we did, but I thought we were on the verge of something big, and he didn’t much care about it. And I had a bunch of people that did. So we went in different ways,” Clinton said.
Hillary Clinton called it “unfortunate” that her husband had flown on Epstein’s plane and said she wishes he hadn’t done so.
The video shows the former president strayed from his prepared remarks during the deposition. He said there’s a photo of him and his wife shaking hands with Epstein during a photo line for a White House Historical Association fundraiser in 1993.
“Neither she nor I remembered shaking his hand all those years ago,” he said, chiding the committee for bringing in his wife for questioning. “So I don’t think that was right. On the other hand, I do think you should be talking to me. I think you should have called me. I did take those plane trips with him, and you have a right to ask those questions.”
Hillary Clinton told the committee she did not recall ever meeting Epstein, but noted that in preparation for the testimony she was made aware that he had attended an event at the White House.
“I knew nothing about him,” she said.
Bill Clinton said it had been 10 or 12 years since he last saw Maxwell, who was in a relationship with a mutual friend.
Bill Clinton confirmed he wrote a letter to Epstein that was included in a book for the disgraced financier’s 50th birthday. He said he did not remember why he contributed, but said it was likely at the request of his staff. Bill Clinton was also shown a copy of a get-well-soon note he apparently wrote to Epstein’s mother in 1995. The former president said it looked like his handwriting, but he did not recall writing it or ever meeting Epstein’s family.
Bill Clinton denied ever having sexual activity with anyone introduced to him by Maxwell, visiting Epstein’s private island in the Virgin Islands, having an interest in underage girls or ever witnessing any sexual abuse during his overseas trips on Epstein’s plane.
He also recalled that he once had a conversation regarding Epstein with President Trump at a golf fundraiser in the early 2000s. Bill Clinton said he remembered Mr. Trump bringing up Epstein unprompted, possibly because he knew the former president had flown on Epstein’s plane. Bill Clinton said he did not think Mr. Trump was implying anything sexual.
“And he said, ‘You know, we had some great times together over the years, but we fell out all because of a real estate deal.’ And he said, ‘I’m sorry it happened.’ That’s all.”
Throughout her testimony, the former secretary of state was engaged in a couple heated exchanges with Republican congresswomen.
One instance stemmed from GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert leaking a photo of the deposition to a right-wing commentator, a violation of the ground rules for the deposition. A lawyer for Hillary Clinton interjected questioning to note the leak of the photo.
“I’m done with this! If you guys are doing that, I am done. You can hold me in contempt from now until the cows come home. This is just typical behavior,” Hillary Clinton said, getting up from her seat. “I’m done for now.”
The deposition then took a brief pause.
In a later moment, Hillary Clinton sparred with Rep. Nancy Mace when the South Carolina Republican asked how she knew Howard Lutnick, who is now Mr. Trump’s Commerce secretary. The exchange spiraled as Hillary Clinton recalled Lutnick leading financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald, which lost hundreds of employees in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. At the time, she was a New York senator.
“I know that,” Mace is heard saying.
“You asked the question, I’m going to answer your question,” Hillary Clinton shot back. “This was what I spent my time doing.”
Mace said there’s an email from Lutnick to Epstein about an “intimate event” for Hillary Clinton at Cantor Fitzgerald and accused Hillary Clinton of trying to “obfuscate” by denying that she ever tried to get money from Epstein.
“You want to yell at me, that’s fine, but I’ll yell right back,” Mace said.