NEW YORK, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- Former U.S. President Bill Clinton on Friday told House lawmakers that he had "no idea" of Jeffrey Epstein's crimes.
"As someone who grew up in a home with domestic abuse, not only would I not have flown on his plane if I had any inkling of what he was doing -- I would have turned him in myself and led the call for justice for his crimes, not sweetheart deals," Clinton said in a statement posted on X.
"I saw nothing, and I did nothing wrong," Clinton said in the statement to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee at the outset of a closed-door deposition.
The former president, whose photos were included in a tranche of millions of documents released by the U.S. Justice Department, said that his "brief acquaintance with Epstein ended years before his crimes came to light," adding that he "never witnessed" during their "limited interactions any indication of what was truly going on."
The deposition in Chappaqua, New York, came one day after his wife, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, sat with lawmakers to give her own testimony.
She told the lawmakers on Thursday that she did not recall ever meeting Epstein and had nothing to share about his sex crimes, calling for U.S. President Donald Trump to appear before the panel.
James Comer, chairman of the committee, said ahead of Bill Clinton's deposition he looked forward to "asking lots of questions," while stating that the Clintons are not accused of wrongdoing.
The Clintons agreed to testify after their offers of sworn statements were rebuffed, and Comer threatened criminal contempt of Congress charges against them.
Both Clintons accused a partisan exercise aimed to shift focus away from Trump's ties to Epstein, noting that others in the inquiry were allowed to submit written statements rather than testify in person.
Their interviews will be videotaped and transcripts will be made public, according to Comer.
The U.S. Department of Justice has released more than 3 million pages of Epstein-related documents over the past months to comply with a law passed by Congress.
Epstein pleaded guilty to a state charge of soliciting a minor for prostitution in 2008. He was arrested again in July 2019 on federal sex trafficking charges and died in jail on Aug. 10, 2019 before trial. ■