(Chappaqua) An investigative committee of the House of Representatives began Thursday to hear the former head of American diplomacy Hillary Clinton, before her husband Bill Clinton the next day, on the couple’s links with the sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein, but the Democrats are also demanding to hear Donald Trump.
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The members of this committee of the House of Representatives with a Republican majority, who traveled for the occasion to Chappaqua, a small town north of New York where the Clintons have a house, have “a lot of questions” to ask them, insisted its president, the Republican James Comer.
Former Democratic President Bill Clinton, who traveled several times aboard Jeffrey Epstein’s private jet and was photographed numerous times in his company, claimed in 2019 that he had not spoken to him for more than a decade. Hillary Clinton, for her part, said she barely knew the financier and sex criminal, who died in 2019.
PHOTO YUKI IWAMURA, ASSOCIATED PRESS
The convoy providing security for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
“No one, at this time, is accusing the Clintons of any wrongdoing. They will get due process, but we have a lot of questions, and the goal of the whole investigation is to try to understand many aspects of the Epstein case,” James Comer continued.
Robert Garcia, elected Democrat on the commission, for his part accused the White House of concealing allegations against Donald Trump, citing the government’s withdrawal of documents mentioning the American president, some of which, according to the press, relate accusations of sexual assault on a minor.
PHOTO CHARLY TRIBALLEAU, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Democratic Representative Robert Garcia
“The Department of Justice continues a White House-orchestrated cover-up and we will demand, in the coming days, the release of the remaining documents,” he said, adding: “let’s bring President Trump before our committee to answer questions.”
It is this same group of parliamentarians who heard Jeffrey Epstein’s accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, on February 9 by videoconference from the prison where she is serving a 20-year prison sentence for sexual exploitation.
As was the case for her, the Clinton couple’s hearing will be made public at its conclusion, probably Friday.
Ghislaine Maxwell’s hearing quickly ended, as she unsurprisingly invoked her constitutional right to remain silent.
But she “is ready to speak completely and honestly if she obtains a pardon from President Donald Trump,” said her lawyer David Markus.
Mme Maxwell would be ready in particular to testify to the fact that “President Trump and President Clinton are innocent of any wrongdoing,” assured her lawyer.
“Nothing to hide”
Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, both 79 years old, each had links with Jeffrey Epstein but claim to have broken up with him well before his death in prison in New York and to have had no knowledge of his sexual crimes.
“We have nothing to hide,” Hillary Clinton, 78, told the BBC in February, recalling that the couple had repeatedly called for the release of the entire Epstein dossier.
The US Department of Justice published on January 30 “more than three million pages” partly redacted from the Epstein file, affirming that the Trump administration had thus fulfilled its obligation, imposed by a law adopted in November by Congress, to shed light on this politically explosive file.
These millions of documents do not contain any element that could lead to additional prosecutions by the American justice system, immediately warned the number 2 of the department, Todd Blanche, former personal lawyer of Donald Trump.
But since their publication, numerous leaders and personalities around the world have been splashed for their past links with Jeffrey Epstein, provoking criminal investigations, arrests and cascading resignations, mainly in Europe.
The mere mention of a person’s name in the file does not imply any a priori reprehensible act on their part.
The testimony of the Clintons ends months of battle with the Republican head of this commission.
Initially summoned in October, Bill and Hillary Clinton refused to appear, denouncing an attempt by Republicans to divert attention from the past proximity between Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump.
Threatened by the commission with prosecution for obstructing Congress, the couple finally announced at the end of January that they agreed to be heard. Both demanded public hearings in vain, saying they wanted to avoid their comments being used by the Republicans.
