Bill Clinton to face grilling on significant to Epstein ties

Former US president Bill Clinton will be grilled by a Congressional panel on Friday on his welldocumented links to Jeffrey Epstein as Democrats seek to shift focus onto Donald Trumps own ties to the convicted sex offenderClinton features prominently throughout the latest Epstein files disclosures with the former president insisting that he broke ties with him well before the disgraced billionaires 2008 conviction for sex offensesMere mention in the files released by the US Department of Justice does not imply wrongdoing and Clinton has not been accused of a crime or formally investigatedHe follows his wife former secretary of state Hillary Clinton who testified Thursday defiantly calling for President Trump who like Bill Clinton had ties with Epstein to appear before the panelIf this committee is serious about learning the truth about Epsteins trafficking crimes it would ask Trump directly under oath about the tens of thousands of times he shows up in the Epstein files she said in an opening statement published onlineThe depositions are being held behind closed doors even though the Clintons called for them to be open and televised a move Bill Clinton denounced as akin to a kangaroo courtThe grilling comes with greater peril for the former president than for his wife as he has acknowledged extensive interactions with Epstein but said he never visited the shady financiers private Caribbean islandEpstein associated with the worlds rich famous and powerful and was convicted in 2008 for soliciting sex from girls as young as 14He died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while facing trial on sex trafficking charges His death was ruled a suicideThe Republicanled House Oversight Committee is probing those who were linked to Epstein particularly in light of the Justice Departments disclosures of millions of new documents related to its investigation of himHillary insisted that she had neither flown on Epsteins plane nor visited his islandThe Clintons had initially rejected subpoenas ordering them to testify in the panels probe but the Democratic power couple agreed to do so after House Republicans threatened to hold them in contempt of CongressNewly released picturesHillary Clinton said in her opening statement to the panel that it justified its subpoena to me based on its assumption that I have information regarding the investigations into the criminal activities of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine MaxwellLet me be as clear as I can I do notDemocrats say the investigation is being weaponized to attack Trumps political opponents rather than to conduct legitimate oversightBill Clinton features prominently in the trove of investigative files related to Epstein released by the Justice Department but has not been accused of any wrongdoingPreviously unseen photographs from the files include one showing the former president reclining in a hot tub part of the image obscured by a stark black rectangleIn another Clinton is pictured swimming alongside a darkhaired woman who appears to be Epsteins accomplice Ghislaine MaxwellClinton has acknowledged flying on Epsteins private plane several times in the early 2000s for Clinton Foundationrelated humanitarian workDavid Markus an attorney for Maxwell said recently that Clinton and Trump are innocent of any wrongdoingThe depositions are being held in Chappaqua New York where the Clintons resideDozens of journalists have converged on the wealthy hamlet and the Secret Service erected metal barricades around the arts center where the depositions are happeningRepublican committee chair James Comer said at the conclusion of Hillarys appearance that lawmakers had a lot of questions for her husband tomorrowThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever