https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/bill-clinton-house-epstein-probe-rare-testimony-former-president-rcna260436Former President Bill Clinton is set to face questions Friday from members of the Republican-led House Oversight Committee about his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, making him the first sitting or former president to testify before members of Congress in over 40 years.
Clinton will be deposed in a closed-door setting one day after the committee questioned his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, for around six hours about what she knew about Epstein and co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell.
Committee chair James Comer, R-Ky., said Thursday that he expected the former president's deposition to take "even longer." The meeting is taking place in Chappaqua, New York, where the Clintons have a house.
The Clintons told the committee in sworn declarations last month that they had “no personal knowledge” of any “criminal activities” by Epstein or Maxwell.
Hillary Clinton has said she has no recollection of ever having met Epstein, but Bill Clinton has acknowledged he flew on his plane in 2002 and 2003 while he was traveling internationally for the Clinton Foundation. In his declaration, Clinton said Epstein "offered a plane that was big enough to accommodate me, my staff and my U.S. Secret Service detail, in support of visiting the Foundation's philanthropic work."
While President Donald Trump has accused Clinton of having taken dozens of trips to Epstein's island in the Caribbean, Clinton said in his declaration that he was never there. White House chief of staff Susie Wiles said in an interview with Vanity Fair last year that Trump “was wrong about that.”
Emails by Epstein the Justice Department released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act also indicated that Clinton did not go to the island, and Maxwell said in an interview with a top Justice Department official last year that he had never been there.
