President Donald Trump never previously gave indications he had been involved with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, former President Bill Clinton told lawmakers during a deposition Friday.
Representative James Comer, the chair of the House Oversight Committee, told reporters during a break in the closed-door deposition in New York before the committee that Clinton demurred when asked whether Trump should also be called to testify in the ongoing Epstein investigation.
“And President Clinton said, ‘That’s for you to decide,'” Comer recalled Friday. “And the president went on to say that [Trump] has never said anything to me to make me think he was involved. And he meant with Epstein.”
Comer, a Kentucky Republican, found Clinton’s response “interesting,” he said.
“I know there’s a lot of obsession about President Trump from the media, a lot of curiosity about President Trump from the media,” Comer told reporters.
Representative Robert Garcia, a Democrat from California, later told reporters that Comer had mischaracterized Clinton’s answer regarding Trump during the deposition.
“I think the best response to that would be to view the complete record of what actually he said,” Garcia told reporters. “We’re not going to disclose what was said because that’s not in the rules. The Republicans keep breaking the rules.”
Garcia said Clinton did mention “additional information” about his discussions with Trump, but insisted Comer’s description wasn’t accurate.
“Let’s release the full transcript, so you can all get a full record of what was actually said, which brings up some very important new questions about comments President Trump has actually said in the past,” Garcia said.
Friday’s deposition of Clinton, 79, marks the first time a former president has been compelled to testify before Congress. The Democrat denied any wrongdoing in his relationship with Epstein and said he didn’t see indications of sexual abuse.
“First, I had no idea of the crimes Epstein was committing,” Clinton said in a statement. “No matter how many photos you show me, I have two things that at the end of the day matter more than your interpretation of those 20-year-old photos. I know what U saw, and more importantly, what I didn’t see. I know what I did, and more importantly, what I didn’t do.
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