Former President Bill Clinton told members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that itâs âfor you to decideâ whether to call up current President Donald Trump to testify in the panelâs Jeffrey Epstein investigation, Chair James Comer told reporters Friday.
â[He] went on to say that, âPresident Trump has never said anything to me to make me think he was involved and he met with Epstein,ââ Comer, a Kentucky Republican, recalled Clinton telling the committee during his deposition.
âI know thereâs a lot of curiosity about President Trump,â Comer continued. âI thought that was an interesting thing that President Clinton said.â
But Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, said in a subsequent news conference during a break in the deposition proceedings that Comerâs remarks were not an âaccurate descriptionâ of Clintonâs testimony.
Garcia declined to share more details, accusing Republicans of breaking the rules with their disclosures about what was being discussed inside the room. But he reiterated that Trump should be subpoenaed in the panelâs Epstein probe.
Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) said that he now, in fact, had ânew questionsâ about Trumpâs alleged falling out with Epstein. Trump has said the two men fell out years before Epsteinâs 2019 arrest and that he had no part in Epsteinâs criminal activities. Trump also has not been charged with any crimes.
Clinton has maintained he was an acquaintance of Epsteinâs but stopped communicating with him at least a decade before the late financierâs arrest in 2019 on federal sex trafficking charges.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, during her testimony before the committee Thursday, denied ever meeting Epstein and said she had no knowledge of his or Ghislaine Maxwellâs crimes.
Neither of the Clintons have been accused of wrongdoing.