The full depositions of former US President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have been released by the House Oversight Committee.
The pair were questioned for over four hours each last week over their relationships with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and what they knew about his crimes. They are some of the highest-ranked officials to have ever been deposed by Congress.
However, the newly released videos of the closed-door proceedings, released on Monday night, show the Clintons frequently veering off track and having to be reigned in by their lawyers.
Watch the key moments from the Clintons’ testimonies on Epstein
During their individual testimonies, the Clintons both distanced themselves from Epstein, with the former Democratic president denying any knowledge of his crimes, and Hillary repeatedly saying she did not recall ever meeting him.
Their depositions come as American lawmakers 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.
While people in the UK, like former ambassador to the US Peter Mandelson and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, have been facing consequences due to revelations about their own relationships with Epstein, there seem to be few signs of the same happening in the US.
Hillary Clinton’s contentious deposition
The deposition of Hillary on Thursday was hardly underway when it was put on pause after a photo taken by Republican Congresswoman Lauren Boebert was sent to a conservative influencer who posted it online.
It violated the committee’s protocol for depositions and threatened for a moment to derail the session.
“I am done with this if you guys are doing that,” Hillary said. “You can hold me in contempt from now until the cows come home.”
The two sides reached an agreement to continue, but as the afternoon wore on, Hillary 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.
Bill Clinton’s relationship with Epstein
On Friday, Bill faced questions both from Republicans and Democrats about photos of the former president that have been released as part of the Epstein files.
The former Democratic president said he first remembered meeting Epstein when he flew aboard the financier’s private jet in 2002 for the Clintons’ humanitarian work, and that they parted ways the year after.
“We were friendly, but I didn’t know him well enough to say we were friends,” he said.
Epstein visited the White House numerous times during Clinton’s presidency, and there are photos of them shaking hands. Clinton told lawmakers he did not recall those interactions.
In response to 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 several people in their travel party were swimming.
He also said that 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 in fact a victim of sexual abuse.
“There’s nothing that I saw when I was around him that made me realize he was trafficking women,” he told the committee.
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, Clinton said: “No.”
Clinton acknowledged he maintained a closer relationship with Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s former girlfriend and confidant.
But he maintained that it was largely because of close mutual connections. He also said “she has to be punished” for her conviction on sex trafficking charges.
50th birthday message
Bill was made to read aloud a message he had written for Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th birthday book.
“It’s reassuring isn’t it, to have lasted as long, across all the years of learning and knowing, adventures and errors and still to have your childlike curiosity, the drive to make a difference and the solace of friends,” he read.
When asked if the “errors” were in reference to Epstein’s crimes, the former president said, “Absolutely not”.
“Anyone who has lived 50 years has made mistakes as well as progress,” he told the committee.
Conspiracy theories
Both Bill and Hillary Clinton were questioned on well-known conspiracy theories surrounding Epstein and his death.
When asked if he believed Epstein killed himself in prison, the former president replied, “I only know what the medical finding was. None of us know. We weren’t there.”
Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton was asked whether there were emails in the case files on Epstein that referenced “pizzagate” — a conspiracy theory alleging the Democratic Party insiders harbored child sex slaves in a Washington pizza parlor.
Hillary 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.
However, Republicans did find some agreement with Hillary when it came to providing more disclosure on what information the government has gathered on UFOs.
She agreed that any releases should not include national security information but that “this is an issue of real importance to so many people.”
Calls for Trump to face the committee
During Hillary’s opening statement, she urged politicians to ask US President Donald Trump about Epstein while under oath.
“If this committee is serious about learning the truth about Epstein’s trafficking crimes, it would not rely on press gaggles to get answers from our current president on his involvement; it would ask him directly under oath about the tens of thousands of times he shows up in the Epstein files,” she said.
When asked directly if Trump should face the committee, she said the US president “has been held civilly liable for sexual assault by a jury of his peers… That is behavior that fits a pattern if one were looking for a pattern.”
She added: “Given what’s in the files and given past and prior conduct, he would be on my witness list.”
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