Bill Clinton asked if he thinks Epstein took his own life in tense exchange during deposition
Topics: Jeffrey Epstein, News, US News, Politics
Niamh Shackleton
Featured Image Credit: Alex Kent/Getty Images
Topics: Jeffrey Epstein, News, US News, Politics
Newly released video footage from the House Oversight Committee shows the moment Bill Clinton was asked if he believes that Jeffrey Epstein took his own life.
The recordings of the depositions, which spanned hours over two days last week, were released on Monday (March 2).
The former president's closed-door interviews were taken under oath on Thursday and Friday. His wife, Hillary Clinton, was also deposed by the House Oversight Committee.
Initially the couple refused to be interviewed as part of the ongoing investigations into Epstein, but later changed their minds.
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House Oversight Committee Chairman and Government Reform Chairman James Comer said this was because it 'became clear that we would hold them in contempt' and the Clintons then 'caved', BBC News reported in early February.
Clinton is the first sitting or former president to be compelled to testify before Congress.
Footage of the depositions have now been released, and in one the former POTUS is quizzed on the nature of Epstein's death in 2019 and his thoughts on the matter.
Clinton was asked: "I would just like to ask you, personally and directly: do you believe that Jeffrey Epstein killed himself?"
Cheryl Mills (a longtime counselor to the Clinton family) then injected and clarified: "Are you asking him to speculate on how Mr. Epstein died?"
A member of the committee then changed her questioning and posed Clinton with the question of whether his 'friend' Epstein suicidal.
Mills then injected once more and refuted that Clinton and Epstein were friends, insisting that they were just 'friendly'.
Eventually Clinton answered the question, stating: "I don't know. I don't know what the medical finding was. I think maybe he finally got caught and– I don't know."
He added: "I've accepted in my own mind that I don't know."
Clinton was then asked to clarify what he'd accepted — that being that Epstein killed himself or that he didn't.
"That he did, but I don't know," the former president replied. "And neither do you. None of us know."
Elsewhere in the deposition, Clinton said in response to a Democratic member’s questions about a photo that showed him in a pool with a woman whose face was redacted that 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 a number of people in their travel party were swimming.
Clinton also said 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 a victim of sexual abuse.