The dossier on Jeffrey Epstein remains at the center of international attention. In the United States, following Hillary Clinton’s testimony, it is now Bill Clinton’s turn to appear. In the United Kingdom, Defence Secretary John Healey has ordered a review of internal files to determine whether the financier used RAF bases to transport the girls he exploited and abused in Britain.
The request, covering a period of more than twenty years, came after former Prime Minister Gordon Brown wrote to six police forces asking them to investigate whether the former Prince Andrew used RAF flights or taxpayer-funded flights to meet Epstein while he served as the UK’s trade envoy in London. “The Ministry of Defence supports all police inquiries. Our thoughts are with all the victims of the vile crimes committed by Epstein,” the minister wrote.
RAF bases can be made available to private paid flights, but permission is granted only when the activity does not affect the site’s security or operations.
After Hillary Clinton’s testimony, it is now Bill’s turn to testify
Meanwhile in the United States, attention has shifted to Bill Clinton, who has been summoned to testify before the House Oversight Committee. This hearing follows the deposition of his wife Hillary Clinton, who during six hours of testimony denied any personal involvement and criticized Donald Trump.
The Republican committee chairman, James Comer, who used various measures – including threatening contempt of Congress charges – to compel the former presidential couple to testify before the Epstein inquiry, said he expects Bill’s testimony to be “even longer” than his wife’s, referring to the many times she replied “I don’t know, you should ask my husband.”
The session will take place in Chappaqua, New York, where the Clintons live; it will be closed to the public but fully recorded. In an effort to avoid depositions they view as a political tactic by Republicans, the Clintons last month submitted an affidavit stating they “had no personal knowledge” of any of Epstein’s or his associate Ghislaine Maxwell’s “criminal activities.”
Hillary yesterday insisted she “has no recollection of meetings with Epstein – I never flew on his plane, visited his island, or his office,” and accused a politicized committee of forcing her to testify “to distract attention from President Trump’s actions and to bury legitimate questions” about the years of acquaintanceship between Trump and the financier.
For Bill Clinton the situation is different. The former president, who has faced numerous inquiries and scandals – including impeachment over his relationship with Monica Lewinsky – will face tough questioning. It is documented that he flew dozens of times on Epstein’s plane between 2002 and 2003; he has said Epstein “provided an airplane large enough to accommodate my staff and the Secret Service on trips for the Clinton Foundation’s work.”
Trump has accused Clinton of having visited Epstein’s notorious Caribbean island many times, the alleged hub of the trafficking network, but Clinton denies ever having been there. That claim is supported by some emails released by the Department of Justice and by testimony Maxwell gave last year to a deputy attorney general of the Trump administration while she was in prison serving a 20-year sentence.
In his affidavit, Clinton acknowledged that Epstein attended some events at the White House during his presidency and may have been photographed “with me among tens of thousands of people,” but said he does not recall meeting Epstein or having specific interactions with him while he was president. He also stated he does not remember speaking with Epstein for more than a decade prior to Epstein’s 2019 arrest – an arrest that came weeks before Epstein’s suicide in custody and more than ten years after his Florida plea deal over soliciting prostitution from a minor.
Perhaps the most awkward and probing questions will concern photographs found in the large archive of Epstein files: images reportedly showing Clinton in a hot tub next to someone obscured, swimming with Maxwell and another woman, seated on what appears to be Epstein’s plane with a young woman on his lap, or posing with Epstein in matching robes suggestive of a party.
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