Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave very different responses to House lawmakers last week when asked whether President Donald Trump should testify in their Jeffrey Epstein probe, newly released video shows.
Both testified to the House Oversight Committee behind closed doors for hours in their hometown of Chappaqua, New York.
Each was also asked by the Democratic side whether Trump should come before the committee himself, given his own known past ties to the late financier and sex trafficker.
‘Absolutely,’ Hillary Clinton answered when the question was posed by Democrats’ staff.
She cited the civil case involving writer E. Jean Carroll in which Trump was found civilly liable for defaming Carroll over her allegations that he sexually assaulted her, as well as the 34-count criminal verdict by a New York City court related to allegations he sought to cover up payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing in both cases.
Neither case relates to Epstein, but Hillary Clinton claimed it proved a ‘pattern’ of behavior that would be relevant to the committee’s probe.
‘I think that it would be in keeping with the scope of the investigation of this committee to set up a deposition with President Trump. I know he’s been deposed many, many, many times. He’s taken the Fifth Amendment many, many hundreds of times,’ she argued.
‘So I’m not saying you’re going to get a lot of information, but given what’s in the files, and given past and prior conduct, he would be on my witness list.’
Bill Clinton’s response was far more muted, however.
When asked by Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., the committee’s top Democrat, whether Trump should be called in, the former president did not express support one way or another.
‘That’s for you to decide. But he did know him well, and I once had a brief discussion with him about it,’ Bill Clinton said.
Garcia attempted to move on to the next Democratic lawmaker before Bill Clinton cut in again, ‘I hate this, because I don’t believe I should inject anything, but I do not want to leave the impression, but since there was no follow-up question, he never — the president never, this is 20-something years ago, never said anything to me to make me think he was involved in anything improper with regard to Epstein, either.’
‘He just said, ‘We were friends. And then we had a falling out over a land deal, property deal.’ That’s all,’ Bill Clinton said.
He then said the conversation occurred on Trump’s golf course and that he ‘somehow’ knew that the former president had flown on Epstein’s plane.
‘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,’ the former president said.
His deposition included far fewer dramatic moments on the whole than his wife’s, who was confronted by Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., and others during multiple explosive points in her own deposition.
At one point, Hillary Clinton even temporarily stormed out of her seat after it was discovered that Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., had run afoul of the deposition’s rules by posting a photo of the former secretary of state.