Former US President Bill Clinton said that current President Donald Trump told him that he had "great times" with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
He said this in testimony at the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, Reuters reports.
So, under oath, Clinton said that Trump mentioned Epstein at a golf tournament in 2002 or 2003 - after Clinton left office and more than a decade before Trump was elected president.
"Somehow he knew that I flew on Jeffrey Epstein's plane. He said: You know, we had some great times together over the years, but we fell out over a real estate deal," Clinton told the Committee.
According to the former President, Trump said the relationship soured after Epstein hired young women who worked at Trump's Mar-a-Lago club. Clinton said that conversation gave him no reason to believe that Trump was involved in anything wrong with Epstein.
Both Trump and Clinton have repeatedly said they have seen no evidence of sex trafficking, and neither has been charged by authorities with any criminal activity related to Epstein.
What Clinton has said about his ties to Epstein
In testimony, Clinton said that he never had sexual contact with any of those introduced to him by the late financier or his partner, Ghislaine Maxwell, but did receive a neck massage from a flight attendant who was later identified as Epstein's victim. Clinton said he was unaware that Epstein abused the girls he hired as masseuses.
"I didn't think it was anything unusual. I can't tell you how many airplanes I've been on where rich people asked me to go and they had someone offering massage. All these boats that you go on and all that, they all do that. And usually I don't do that," he said.
Clinton said he had never visited Epstein's Caribbean island and was unaware that Epstein visited the White House 17 times during his presidency from 1993 to 2001.
Recall that, according to an FBI document among the new "Epstein files," Trump allegedly called the Palm Beach Police Department in 2006 to thank them for investigating Jeffrey Epstein. Police Chief Michael Reiter claims that he told him "everyone knew he was doing it."
Meanwhile, according to CNN, three FBI reports with testimonies of violence and statements about Trump were not made public in the Epstein case.
At the same time, at least 16 documents and files, including a photo of Trump, disappeared from the previous batch of "Epstein files" less than a day after publication.
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