Bill, Hillary Clinton told to appear for depositions in Jeffrey Epstein probe
House Republicans have ordered Bill and Hillary Clinton to testify next month about their ties to sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein after rejecting their offer of written statements.
United States Representative. James Comer (Republican, Kentucky) has ordered former president Bill Clinton and former first lady and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to appear for depositions next month amid the House Oversight Committee’s probe of convicted sex trafficker and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Representative Comer initially subpoenaed the former first couple on August 5 to answer questions about their relationship with Epstein, who was found dead in his prison cell on August 10, 2019, but the Clintons’ lawyer in a November 3 response had asked for his clients to make merely “a written proffer of what little information” they have.
“Given the admission that your clients possess some relevant information, your position amounts to a demand that the Committee forgo in-person testimony potentially relevant to its legislative oversight,” the powerful GOP chairman said.
“Additionally, your suggestion that your clients’ testimony would not be relevant to the stated purposes of the Committee’s investigation because the events in question took place outside of the Clintons’ respective official duties, misses the Committee’s point,” Rep. Comer added.
“It is precisely the fact President Clinton and Secretary Clinton each maintained relationships with Mr. Epstein and Ms. Maxwell in their personal capacities as private citizens that is of interest to the Committee.”
The 42nd president has been ordered to appear for his deposition on December 17 at 10am. His wife, the former US secretary of state, was directed to sit for her deposition the following day at 10am as well.
Representatives for Bill Clinton have stated he “knows nothing” about Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes and had no knowledge of his sex trafficking activities, while Hillary Clinton has largely avoided public comment, with her representatives referring to Bill’s statements.
In July 2019, Angel Urena, a spokesman for the former president, tweeted, “President Clinton knows nothing about the terrible crimes Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty to in Florida some years ago, or those with which he has been recently charged in New York.”
AI AUDIO OF TRUMP GAINS SOCIAL TRACTION
Left-leaning social media users have amplified an AI-generated audio clip purporting to show President Donald Trump screaming at US officials to block the release of documents related to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, researchers said Friday.
In recent weeks, renewed public furore over the so-called Epstein files has consumed US politics, spurring a showdown between politicians and Mr Trump, a former friend of the late convicted sex offender.
“Not releasing the Epstein files,” a Trump-like synthetic voice said in a widely circulated clip that social media posts falsely claimed showed the president berating his cabinet.
“If I go down, I will bring all of you down with me.”
The clip was amplified by posts on platforms such as Instagram and TikTok, many of which garnered millions of views and thousands of comments.
Disinformation watchdog NewsGuard said the audio was “an AI-generated fake.”
The clip — apparently first posted by a liberal TikTok user — came from a video showing signs it was generated with Sora, Open AI’s text-to-video model, NewsGuard said.
The clip was then shared in multiple other videos that lacked Sora’s watermarks, thereby “obscuring its AI origins,” the watchdog said.
Liberal social media users have also wrongly quoted White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt as saying that recently released Epstein emails do not refer to the president.
“It is not President Trump who is in the Epstein emails. It is another person with the same name,” read a post on X that credited the remark to Leavitt and amassed more than four million views.
The false claim also gained traction on Instagram.
Responding on one such post on X insisting that Leavitt had made the remark, a White House account on the platform said: “No … she didn’t. You are a weapons grade moron.”
The left-wing warping of reality underscores how disinformation is peddled across both sides of the political aisle in a hyperpolarized country.
The falsehoods stir information chaos on increasingly unmoderated social media sites that has made it harder for ordinary users to decipher fact from fiction.
Mr Trump has insisted he has “nothing to do” with his one-time close friend Epstein.
The Republican president signed into law on Wednesday a bill requiring his administration to release government documents on Epstein.
Mr Trump had for months resisted the release of the files but stunned Washington this week after reversing course and ensuring that the legislation sailed through Congress.
Insiders warn that even with the president’s signature, his administration could lean on redactions, procedural delays orlingering federal investigations to keep explosive details out of the public eye.
Epstein, a wealthy financier, moved in elite circles for years, cultivating close ties with business tycoons, politicians, academics and celebrities to whom he was accused of trafficking girls and young women for sex.
Epstein’s 2019 arrest over a trafficking charge fuelled a storm of outrage and pressure for a full accounting of his networkand finances.
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