Epstein, Bill Clinton deny everything and pressure grows on Trump

"I know what I have seen and, more importantly, what I have not seen. I know what I did and, more importantly, what I did not do. I saw nothing, I did nothing wrong'. This is what Bill Clinton said at the beginning of his testimony to the House Committee investigating the case of paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.

After the six-hour deposition, turned by Hillary Clinton on Thursday into an attack against Donald Trump and his allies, 79-year-old Bill Clinton appeared before the Commission yesterday, thus becoming the first incumbent or former president to testify before Congress since 1983. An alarming precedent even for Donald Trump: "I'm not happy, I'm not pleased" that Bill Clinton is being questioned by the Commission, the current president said, as Democrats press to force him to testify under oath about his long friendship with Epstein.

Bill Clinton in his speech - behind closed doors from Chappaqua, New York State, where he lives - explained that he had only had "a brief association" with Epstein and denied any involvement in the sex crimes of the financier, who was first convicted in 2008 and later died in prison in 2019. "Although my brief association with Epstein ended years before his crimes came to light, and although I saw during our limited interactions no indication of what was really going on, I am here to offer what little I know so as to prevent something like this from happening again," he said.

The Republican chairman of the Commission, James Comer, having used all means, even the threat of an indictment for contempt of Congress, to compel the two Clintons to testify, subjected the former president to a series of questions including about Epstein's links to the Clinton Foundation.

The situation of the former Democratic president is very delicate. In fact, there is evidence that Bill Clinton - American president from 1993 to 2001 and survivor of investigations and scandals, including sex scandals - flew dozens of times between 2002 and 2003 on Epstein's plane, and photos circulated in recent weeks show him with girls in the swimming pool and in friendly attitudes with Epstein. His responsibility in the affair was, however, mitigated by some e-mails published by the Justice Department and by the statements of Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's companion and accomplice.