The House Oversight Committee on Monday released videos of its interviews last week with former President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as part of its probe into the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
NBC News is reviewing the videos, which are about four-and-a-half hours each. The footage was posted days after the Clintons sat for interviews with the Republican-led committee to answer questions about Epstein and his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell.
Hillary Clinton answered questions under oath from the committee on Thursday and Bill Clinton answered questions on Friday.
In his interview, Clinton recalled a conversation he once had with Donald Trump about Epstein “20-something years ago.”
“It was on his golf course,” he said, referring to the conversation with Trump. He said they were playing together at a charity game, “and he somehow had known I’d flown in Jeffrey Epstein’s aircraft 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,'” Clinton testified. “And he said that I’m sorry it happened.”
Clinton told the panel that Trump “never said anything to me think he was involved with anything improper in regard to Epstein either.”
The Washington Post first reported in 2019 that Trump and Epstein’s rift was related to a Florida mansion they both wanted to buy.
Trump has previously said they had a falling out because he thought Epstein was a “creep.” Trump has not been accused of any wrongdoing by law enforcement and has denied any wrongdoing involving Epstein.
Bill Clinton has acknowledged flying on Epstein’s plane for Clinton Foundation travel in the early 2000s, before Epstein was hit with criminal charges and has denied knowledge of Epstein’s crimes at the time. Hillary Clinton has said she doesn’t remember ever meeting him but acknowledged Maxwell, who’s serving 20 years in prison for sex trafficking, was an “acquaintance.” Neither Clinton has been charged with any wrongdoing.
Bill Clinton was asked if he believed Maxwell should receive clemency, something she’s seeking from Trump. He answered, “I don’t think I should comment on that.”
The former president then said, “This was really hard for me when it came out,” referring to the charges against Maxwell. “We were friendly with Ghislaine.” He did not clarify who “we” referred to.
He added, “I was sad. But it was terrible what she did and she should be punished. Somebody besides me should make a decision on what it is.”
In a post on X after his hours of testimony, Bill Clinton said, “Though my brief acquaintance with Epstein ended years before his crimes came to light, and though I never witnessed during our limited interactions, any indication with what was truly going on, I offered the little I do know, in the hopes that it would help prevent anything like this from ever happening again.”
“When the video of my testimony today is released, I hope it will motivate everyone to go in front of Congress to say what they know. I hope it will motivate the Justice Department to finally release all the files and to ensure that this never happens again,” he said.
Transcripts of the interviews — which must be reviewed by multiple parties, including the Clintons — will be released at a later time.
