Trump slams Republicans for dragging Clinton to Epstein grilling

Donald Trump has rebuked his Republican allies for dragging Bill Clinton to testify over his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.

‘I don’t like seeing him deposed, but they certainly went after me,’ Trump said, adding: ‘I like him.’ 

Trump spoke to reporters outside the White House on Friday as Clinton became the first former president ever compelled to testify before Congress against his will. 

Clinton issued a blistering statement insisting ‘I saw nothing, and I did nothing wrong,’ as he was grilled by the House Oversight Committee over Epstein and the Justice Department’s handling of the case. 

Democratic lawmakers said outside the hearing in Chappaqua, New York, that ‘we’re talking to the wrong president today,’ amid mounting calls for Trump to testify. 

Trump and Clinton have come under intense pressure to answer questions about their relationships with the pedophile financier after they were each named tens of thousands of times in the new Epstein files released by the DOJ.

Republican Rep. James Comer, who is leading the committee, told reporters during a break in Clinton’s testimony claimed that the former president had absolved Trump.

‘Trump has never said anything to me to make me think he was involved,’ Clinton told lawmakers, according to Comer.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is also being urged to testify after the files revealed he had visited Epstein’s island after claiming he cut off all ties to the pedophile. Trump told reporters Friday that Lutnick ‘is a very innocent guy.’ 

Trump, who was a Clinton donor, backed his predecessor earlier this month after Bill and Hillary finally agreed to testify under the threat of contempt charges. 

‘It bothers me that somebody is going after Bill Clinton,’ Trump said. ‘See, I like Bill Clinton. I still like Bill Clinton. I liked his behavior toward me. I thought he got me. He understood me.’

Clinton fumed at Republicans for dragging his wife to testify after Hillary on Thursday repeatedly told lawmakers she never met Epstein.

‘Before we start, I have to get personal. You made Hillary come in. She had nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein. Nothing,’ Clinton said. ‘She has no memory of even meeting him. She neither traveled with him nor visited any of his properties. Whether you subpoenaed 10 people or 10,000, including her was simply not right.’

Clinton signaled his answers would echo a phrase synonymous with his scandal-filled presidency: ‘I don’t recall.’ 

‘You’ll often hear me say that I don’t recall. That might be unsatisfying. But I’m not going to say something I’m not sure of,’ he continued. 

‘This was all a long time ago. And I am bound by my oath not to speculate, or to guess. This is not merely for my benefit, but because it doesn’t help you for me to play detective 24 years later.’

Lawmakers are grilling Clinton after evidence from the Epstein files revealed new depths of his friendship with the pedophile.

Photos released by Congress and the Department of Justice over the last few months show the former president on a private jet with his arm around a young woman, swimming with Maxwell and relaxing in a hot tub with another unidentified woman.

In his opening statement, Clinton spoke of growing up in a family plagued with domestic abuse. 

‘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.

Clinton’s stepfather, Roger Clinton, was an alcoholic who was physically abusive to Clinton’s mother, Virginia Kelley. The former president has previously recalled intervening to defend his mother against his stepfather’s abuse. 

Epstein visited the Clinton White House at least 17 times between 1993 and 1995 and flew at least 27 times on the pedophile’s private jet. 

‘But even with 20/20 hindsight, I saw nothing that ever gave me pause. We are only here because he hid it from everyone so well for so long,’ Clinton added. ‘And by the time it came to light with his 2008 guilty plea, I had long stopped associating with him.’

The deposition is being held in private, but it is recorded by cameras and the testimony is expected to be released after it is viewed by the Clintons’ legal team. 

Republicans have sought to question Clinton about Epstein for years, especially as conspiracy theories arose following Epstein’s 2019 suicide in a New York jail cell while he faced sex trafficking charges.

Those calls reached fever pitch late last year when the new DOJ photos revealed his relationship with Epstein ran deeper than previously known. 

In a declaration to lawmakers last month, Clinton admitted flying on Epstein’s plane in 2002 and 2003 while he was traveling internationally for the Clinton Foundation.

Clinton said Epstein ‘offered a plane that was big enough to accommodate me, my staff and my US Secret Service detail, in support of visiting the Foundation’s philanthropic work.’

The former president said he never visited Epstein’s private Caribbean island, Little St James, where many of the pedophile’s accusers say they were trafficked for abuse.

Maxwell said in an interview with the Justice Department last year that Clinton was never there.

‘I do not recall speaking to Mr. Epstein for more than a decade prior to his 2019 arrest’ Clinton’s declaration said.

Hillary said after her deposition: ‘I think the chronology of the connection that he had with Epstein ended several years before anything about Epstein’s criminal activities came to light.’

Comer has pledged extensive questioning of the former president. He claimed that Hillary had repeatedly deferred questions about Epstein to her husband.

Epstein was found hanged in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence as his only co-conspirator ever convicted.

Democrats argue the Clinton deposition sets a precedent that should apply equally to Trump, who had his own documented relationship with Epstein. 

Only four ex-presidents – Trump, Harry Truman, John Tyler and John Quincy Adams – and one sitting president, Richard Nixon, have been formally subpoenaed by Congress to testify. Trump, Truman, Nixon, and Quincy Adams all refused to comply, while Tyler agreed to appear.

The Supreme Court has never definitively ruled on whether a president can be compelled to testify before Congress, though the DOJ has historically argued presidents enjoy ‘testimonial immunity’ to protect the separation of powers. 

Representative Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the committee, said: ‘We’re demanding immediately that we ask President Trump to testify in front of our committee and be deposed in front of Oversight Republicans and Democrats.’ 

Comer has pushed back on that idea, saying that Trump has answered questions on Epstein from the press.