Transcription
And staying out here. I know it's been a very long day. We believe this was a very productive deposition. I will have to say that President Clinton answered every question or attempted to answer every question. We can talk about some of his answers in more detail. And I'm sure, uh, once the video is released and the transcripts released, not only will you, but a lot of people in America will have more questions about, uh, some of the answers that were given, and, uh, where we go from here.
But, uh, with respect to today, uh, this was a, a long process and I want to say this was historical. I believe that in the history of Congress, the two highest ranked officials to ever be deposed by Congress would be President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Uh, this is a serious investigation. Uh, we will continue to try to get the truth to the American people and justice for the victims. But I think, uh, a consistent theme continues to, uh, persist throughout all the people that we bring in. Obviously, the government failed the victims. There was, uh, justice was not served in Palm Beach, uh, when Epstein was, was first arrested. We're very concerned about that. We still have lots of questions about how Epstein accumulated so much wealth, uh, and we will continue to bring some more people in and try to get answers. I'm going to yield to, uh, the other committee members, but every member of the committee participated both days and asked very good, very good questions.
Miss M. >> Uh, yes, I want to thank President Clinton for being here today. He was here for a very long day. Um, he did attempt to respond, uh, to every single question asked. Even when his attorneys told him to shut up, he kept, you know, going. Um, I think there's agreement too on everybody who was here on both sides of the aisle that we want to get to the bottom of this. Whether Jeffrey Epstein was an intel asset or honeypot operation, uh, sex trafficker, prostitution ring leader, uh, you know, finance here, a Ponzi schemes, financial crimes, etc. There is an effort, I believe, and a belief that we need to get to the bottom of this because justice was not served in the Southern District of New York. It was not served in Palm Beach, uh, and it certainly hasn't been served for many victims around the world who are, who are victims of this operation. I want to thank my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for their questions today. Representative Sansbury had a lot of courageous questions. She showed bravery today. Uh, she and I never get along. Uh, sometimes, in fact, can be seen arguing and oversight. Um, but I say that because this is a place that is not partisan. This is a place where the country is seeing Republicans and Democrats work together to figure this out, find the truth, and try to come up with solutions so that when this happens, women are believed, men are prosecuted, their abuses are prosecuted, and justice can be seen and can be done. And I want to thank everyone for their hard work. I think, um, I can't say anything about the questions and answers today or yesterday, but I, I will comment that, uh, I believe you'll see some inconsistencies in some of the responses. I brought that to the forefront, uh, this afternoon. Thank you.
>> Um, I'd like to close by saying that we do intend to follow up and bring in, and I know that that's up to the chairman's discretion, uh, but some of the co-conspirators that were given lesser sentences that were known to have trafficked young girls. Um, unacceptable. There's a difference between a victim and someone who engaged in prostitution and the trafficking of minors, and that needs to be clarified. I will again hold to the same thing that I said earlier, and that I do believe, and I'm sure some people on this committee also believe, that Jeffrey Epstein was an intelligence asset and running some form of a honeypot operation. I do believe that President Clinton, as well as the secretary, were potentially targets of that operation, and we will leave it at that, and I look forward to seeing, um, you, you all react to the depositions, as I think that this is information that's important and belongs to the American people.
>> Mr. Lang, >> uh, I, I want to reiterate what some of my colleagues have said. I want to salute our chairman, uh, James Comr, for putting together an extremely professional deposition, uh, these last two days, factual. This was not a, a highly partisan event like most of our hearings are, uh, when we're in Washington. Uh, we were there to ask direct questions. I, I think President Clinton today was quite candid, probably more candid than his attorneys were comfortable with. Uh, but, uh, I think that, um, this, this will, uh, obviously, when we release a video of this, I mean, you'll have the opportunity to digest it. Uh, but we do have to get justice for the victims because in all of the political food fight of Washington D.C., what is getting lost is the fact that there are victims that deserve justice.
>> Well said. >> Depositions like this are important because we need to get answers. We need justice for the victims. Epstein and his associates committed unspeakable evil, and I'm, I'm glad that President, uh, Clinton and, uh, Hillary came out here. What I believe I saw the last two days was selective memory. Very good details back into the 90s and in other times, I don't know, I don't recall. So we'll ask, we have more questions to answer. Thank you.
>> Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, Mr. Chairman, >> can you definitely say that as a result of the former president's deposition, you now have more information that you didn't have before about his sex trafficking ring? And secondly, also as a result of the deposition, will you be opening any new investigations or new inquiries into specific individuals or institutions?
>> Well, we're going to bring more people in. We're not finished. We didn't want to announce names before today. It was so hard to get the Clintons in. I didn't want to do anything to jeopardize losing them. Uh, I think we learned some things. We were hoping to get more, but, uh, there were many questions, as you will see, hopefully in the next 24 hours when the videos were released, uh, that there were a lot of very specific questions about very specific documents and correspondence that were, uh, subpoenaed by, that we got from the Department of Justice, as well as the Epstein estate. Uh, many times the Clintons couldn't recall or, or, or didn't know or, or denied that, uh, they were pertaining to them. So, uh, but I do think that we picked up some new facts. Uh, we asked both Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton where we should go from here as a committee because we're sincere about trying to get the truth to the American people and and hold some bad actors accountable in this.
>> Mr. Chairman, Mr. Chairman, >> you 24 hours ago you mentioned you were hoping to have Secretary Clinton's deposition released. We're, we're trying. We've got one employee that does the videography and he had to do the videography today, too. So, we're going to try to release those.
>> Approval by the attorneys.
>> Yeah. Well, the transcript has to be approved by the attorneys. So, the, the video could very likely come out before the, the transcripts. Once the, the transcribers were, were in here, we had a whole team of, uh, transcribers. They're going to, you know, put it on, uh, on paper. Uh, then both sides will get to approve the transcripts, then we'll release it. That's standard rules of deposition. We always do that. We will do that with the, with the videos as quick as we can get them all uploaded and and cleaned up. Any background noise or anything like that, then we will release them, hopefully in the next 24.
>> Mr. Chairman, Mr. Chairman, Mr. Chairman, >> thank you, Mr. Chairman. I know there's been, uh, you've been asked repeatedly about Secretary Lutnik as well. While this deposition was playing out, President Trump said that Secretary Lutnik would testify. Have you made a decision yet on whether you're going to call him in?
>> Well, we have a lot of questions about anyone who spent time with Epstein post conviction, the first conviction. I think that's where, and if I, if anyone disagrees, feel free to speak up, but I think that's where most of our concerns are. Once you knew Jeffrey Epstein was a sex offender, >> why did you >> why did you continue a relationship? So stay tuned on that.
>> Mr. Chairman, Mr. Chairman, Chairman Comr, Chairman, >> why do you think today was more respectful than yesterday? Was President Clinton more cooperative?
>> Respectful focus.
>> Well, um, >> you respect.
>> We were respectful.
>> Well, yeah. I mean, you can watch the video and say, you know, everybody knows President Clinton. He's, he's got southern people skills. He's a charming individual, obviously.
>> Mr. Chairman, Mr. Chairman, President Trump today.
>> Mr. You have said in the past that Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton were not accused of any wrongdoing connected to Jeffrey Epstein after two days of of asking them very tough questions in that regard. Do you still feel the same way that there's no reason to think that they're connected to any wrongdoing to the?
>> Well, they said they weren't, uh, I guess innocent until proven guilty. We're going to go back and look at there were a lot of, there were the reason Miss Clinton complained about being asked the same question over and over is because we presented different emails, different documents that that would suggest that she was close with Epstein and Maxwell, and obviously she denied that. Now, we're going to go back and and verify that to see if any type of perjury was committed.
Chad, >> thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh, President Trump said today that he knew nothing about the Epstein files and he was exonerated. Do you agree that he is exonerated of this matter?
>> From all the evidence I've seen, he's been exonerated for, for a long time.
>> And would that preclude your committee, if that's your position, from your committee calling him?
>> Well, we'll discuss that, uh, as we move forward. Obviously, we've got more people to bring in, and we'll see if any new evidence arises. But right now, I haven't seen anything. And if anybody.
>> Can I just say this? The Epstein victims have exonerated President Trump. This is a trope that you guys are a rabbit hole you guys are going down. But he has been exonerated over and over again by Epstein victims. We need to get all the information on co-conspirators. We still don't even have the names of all the co-conspirators because the Southern District of New York is hiding that information by redacting those names.
>> Wait, just wait real real quick if I can also just add into that.
>> Question. Let me just follow up. If that's the case though, you you make the case, the chairman makes the case about why it was so important to hear in great detail from both Clintons, but why it's not.
>> If I can, if I can just elaborate real quick on plane 26 flights, I mean, he had information was with for hours and hours, lots of all the Chad, if I can just add in President Clinton, and you guys will all be able to hear specifically what he said, referenced a 2003, 2002, 2003 conversation of which he did not feel that President Trump had any wrongdoing in regards to Jeffrey Epstein. It's incredibly important that you guys see through the partisan nature of what has become this entire investigation. It's also important that you guys are reporting the fact that everything that we are seeing in these documents, to include what I presented to both the secretary and President Clinton, show that Epstein was running an intelligence operation. He was targeting people specifically, and he was intentionally bringing in and using women to traffic in minors and then exposing vulnerabilities for different people. What I will also say is that like Nancy has said and the chairman, there's nothing that we are seeing where there's criminal involvement or reason to believe that the president has any wrongdoing, and that is why we are not supporting this crazy theory in bringing him into all of this. We appreciate that President Clinton said what he did, and I will say that that has probably been, I guess, the silver lining in all of this. And I will say Secretary Clinton and President Clinton both offered, I think, suggestions, advice on where this investigation should go based on information they have, things that they've seen, experiences in their positions, and that's helpful to this entire thing. And again, this has been not partisan. We saw really great questions from the Democrat side of the Oversight Committee and the Republican side today. I was very impressed with where this went today. Nancy, can I ask when have survivors said to you that President Trump is exonerated? Yes. Because they've only ever told me they want to see him questioned.
>> Nope. I've never heard that from a single victim.
>> We, when we met, when the committee, the Republicans and Democrats met with, what were there, five or six survivors that day. We met with two hours and their attorneys. Of course, the Democrats asked that question numerous times to the victims, and they all said they never saw anything or heard anything, uh, that Donald Trump did wrong, never saw him on the island or anything else.
>> And if I, and if I can just add in real quickly also, there was false allegations made against President Clinton. Okay, we are not going to bring bring in people that were making false allegations against either president. That's not what you do in this. Okay, we're looking for justice, and that's why we're going to be bringing in some of the known co- co-conspirators that were given plea deals. Okay, that's justice. Congressman, you did a great job on that. Thank you.
>> Have you raised these?
>> Last question. Yes.
>> You have you have issues with redactions in the Southern District. Have you raised that concern to the Attorney General?
>> I have raised a my concern with redaction to the Southern District of New York. They have a letter of the DOJ and the CIA. My advice to the Department of Justice is release, uh, the documents and and, uh, unredact the names of, of, uh, anyone who wasn't a victim. And, and I think one of the issues we have, can you be a victim and a victimizer? That's a, that's a question that we're going to talk about as we move forward. Now, uh, we look forward to seeing you next week in Washington. We will have further announcements of where we're going with the investigation, but we have two more depositions already booked. One with, uh, Jeffrey Epstein's accountant, and one with Jeffrey Epstein's lawyer. So, those are are forthcoming. We'll probably announce some more people we're going to bring in, uh, prior to those depositions, but I think we had a, a good two days in New York City. I, I appreciate the Clintons being here. Wish it wasn't so hard to get them here, but as often is the case, it, it was, it was more difficult than it should have been. But thank you all for being here, and we look forward to releasing the video and the transcript, uh, as soon as possible. Thank you all.
Chairman Comr wrapping up there along with his colleagues on the Republican side of the House Oversight Committee wrapping up this two-day deposition yesterday with Hillary Clinton, today with the former President Bill Clinton. Uh, before we go to a two-minute break, I do want to show you some new reporting by Fox News and Fox News Digital, uh, showcasing the House Oversight deposition, saying Bill Clinton was asked about this photo of him in a hot tub with a woman whose identity is redacted. Two sources tell me it was part of the docs release by DOJ saying that he did not know the woman and did not have sex with her. That is according to sources with Fox News and Fox News Digital. Well, here is the look now of what was the two-day really marathon session with Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton, uh, for that two-day deposition. The lights coming down. House Democrats does not appear at this moment to be giving a wrap-up like the Republicans. We'll keep an eye on the shot though. If that changes, you'll see it right here on Live Now from Fox. All right, everyone.