The China Mail - Bill Clinton faces grilling on extensive ties to Epstein

Clinton features prominently throughout the Epstein files, but the former president insists that he broke ties with him well before the disgraced billionaire's 2008 conviction for sex offenses.

"It took seven months to get the Clintons in here. But we've got them in here and we look forward to asking lots of questions," said the Republican chair of the House committee probing Epstein, James Comer, ahead of Bill Clinton's deposition.

But Democrats on the committee reiterated their call for Trump to be quizzed.

"Let's be real, we are talking to the wrong president," said Democrat committee member Suhas Subramanyam.

Being mentioned in the files released by the US Department of Justice does not imply wrongdoing, and Clinton has not been accused of a crime or formally investigated.

He follows his wife, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, who testified Thursday, defiantly calling for President Trump -- who like Bill Clinton had many ties with Epstein -- to appear before the panel.

"If this committee is serious about learning the truth about Epstein's trafficking crimes... it would ask (Trump) directly under oath about the tens of thousands of times he shows up in the Epstein files," she said.

The depositions under oath are being held behind closed doors, with Bill Clinton likening the proceedings to a "kangaroo court." The couple has called for them to be open and televised.

The grilling comes with greater peril for the former president than for his wife, as he has acknowledged extensive interactions with Epstein, but said he never visited the financier's private Caribbean island.

Epstein mingled with the world's rich, famous and powerful, and was convicted in 2008 for soliciting sex from girls as young as 14.

He died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while facing trial on sex trafficking charges. His death was ruled a suicide.

The Republican-led House Oversight Committee is probing those who were linked to Epstein, particularly in light of the Justice Department's disclosures of millions of new documents related to its investigation of him.

The Clintons had initially rejected subpoenas ordering them to testify in the panel's probe, but the Democratic power couple agreed to do so after House Republicans threatened to hold them in contempt of Congress.

- Newly released pictures -

Hillary Clinton said in her opening statement to the panel that it "justified its subpoena to me based on its assumption that I have information regarding the investigations into the criminal activities of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell."

"Let me be as clear as I can. I do not."

Democrats say the investigation is being weaponized to attack Trump's political opponents rather than to conduct legitimate oversight.

Previously unseen photographs from the files include one showing Bill Clinton reclining in a hot tub, part of the image obscured by a stark black rectangle.

In another, Clinton is pictured swimming alongside a dark-haired woman who appears to be Epstein's accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.

Bill Clinton has acknowledged flying on Epstein's private plane several times in the early 2000s for Clinton Foundation-related humanitarian work, while Hillary said she did not know Epstein.

The depositions are being held in Chappaqua, New York, where the Clintons reside.

Dozens of journalists have converged on the wealthy hamlet and the Secret Service erected metal barricades around the arts center where the depositions are happening.

V.Liu--ThChM