On Friday, it was former President Bill Clinton’s turn to be hauled in front of the House Committee to Protect Donald Tru— oh, sorry, it’s the House Oversight Committee.
You can see why one would get confused. After all, how is it that someone who left the White House 25 years ago, a man with less recent and less damning appearances in the Jeffrey Epstein files than the sitting president, has been called before the committee while President Donald Trump has not?
Clinton’s opening statement didn’t pull any punches, calling the committee out for dragging his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, during the previous day’s hearing.
“She had nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein. Nothing. She has no memory of even meeting him. She neither traveled with him nor visited any of his properties,” the former president said. “Whether you subpoenaed 10 people or 10,000, including her was simply not right.”
Related | Hillary Clinton keeps her cool during bogus Epstein hearing
Clinton’s opening statement also said he saw nothing, and did nothing wrong, and that “as someone who grew up in a home with domestic abuse, not only would I not have flown on his plane if I had any inkling of what he was doing—I would have turned him in myself and led the call for justice for his crimes, not sweetheart deals.”
The former president also got in a couple of bangers, including, “Since I am under oath, I will not falsely state that I am looking forward to your questions.”
And this: “With that, Mr. Chairman, fire away.”
About that Mr. Chairman ...
Republican Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, who apparently assumes everyone is as brick-thick stupid and partisan as he is, continues to try to make us believe that threatening the Clintons with jail time to force them to appear while avoiding even mentioning Trump’s connections to the Epstein files is the real work of justice here.
He called Friday a historic day and said he was bringing “some of the most powerful people in the world” to testify and that “there are a lot of photos.”
Does he mean a photo like the one the Department of Justice altered to make it look like Clinton, Diana Ross, and Michael Jackson were photographed with Epstein victims, but the people blacked out were actually Ross’ and Jackson’s kids?
Here’s a fun fact about all the photos of Bill Clinton in the Epstein files: They have no dates, no locations, and no context. In contrast, the Department of Justice continues to protect Trump by withholding and removing files that may implicate him, such as files related to a woman who accused Trump of sexually abusing her when she was underage.
It’s almost like the Trump administration, the DOJ, Comer, and everyone else involved in this charade don’t want to acknowledge that Bill Clinton seemingly stopped spending time with Epstein before 2006, when he was indicted for solicitation of prostitution. This is corroborated by flight logs, documents, and correspondence in the Epstein files—but why let a little truth get in the way?
One of the reasons demanding Bill Clinton, but not Donald Trump, sit for sworn testimony is that everybody knows that if there were anything damning about Clinton in the Epstein files, the DOJ would have released it ages ago.
House members from both parties made mid-hearing statements, and you will not be surprised to learn that Comer’s statement was another opportunity to try to clear Trump.
He told the press that Clinton said he had never seen evidence that led him to believe Trump was criminally involved with Epstein.
Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, said this mischaracterized Clinton’s statements about Trump and Comer’s explanation was “not a complete, accurate description” of the testimony.
James Comer? Lying? To smear a Democrat and protect Trump? Impossible!
Whatever Clinton did say, Democratic Rep. Maxwell Frost of Florida said that Democrats now have “new questions” about Trump’s ties to Epstein.
Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California also pointedly reminded the GOP that by dragging the Clintons in, they seem to have established there isn’t a special “no presidents” rule.
“Now we have the Clinton rule, which is the presidents and their families have to testify when Congress issues a subpoena,” Khanna said.
Somehow, Comer and the other GOP House geniuses managed to question Bill Clinton for less time than they grilled Hillary Clinton, a person who never met Jeffrey Epstein. It really brings home what a farce this whole thing is.
If you were expecting immediate post-hearing fireworks, you’ll likely be disappointed. Let’s be frank: If some bombshell had come out of today’s testimony, Comer and Rep. Nancy Mace would be shouting it from the rooftops.
There was a mid-hearing leak about Clinton’s answer to questions about a photograph the DOJ released, where Clinton is in a hot tub with a woman whose face is redacted. Clinton said he didn’t know who she was and, when asked the inevitable question, said he did not have sex with her.
There was also a Trump-friendly leak from “sources familiar with the testimony” that claimed Clinton told the panel that Trump revealed in the early 2000s that he and Epstein were no longer best buds because they had a fight about a land deal.
On second thought, maybe that isn’t as Trump-friendly as the leaker might have hoped, given that Trump has offered up different explanations. Maybe they stopped being friends over a real estate deal in 2004. Maybe it’s that Epstein poached his employees at some undefined time. Or maybe it was that Epstein was creepy to a teenager at Mar-a-Lago in 2007.
Gosh, if only someone could question Trump under oath about all these different claims.
Related | Trump gives masterclass with Epstein files on how to appear very guilty
Comer spoke after the hearing and made clear that he is going to keep questioning everyone except Trump and people in his orbit. Instead, he bragged to the press that “we have two more depositions already booked.” Those big gets? Epstein’s accountant and his lawyer.
Come on, man.
Unlike Hillary, Bill Clinton didn’t make any post-hearing statements, so let’s end with this delightfully pointed comment from his spokesman, Angel Urena, earlier in the day.
The most recent Epstein file release showed the first complaint about Epstein was received by the FBI in 1996, though there was no investigation for about another decade. Urena was asked if Clinton would have known about it.
Urena said that sort of complaint wouldn’t be escalated to the presidential level because “before this White House started telling the F.B.I. what to do” there was “a firewall between law enforcement and the president.”
Sadly, those days are long gone.
A cartoon by Clay Jones.
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