Clintons testify as Epstein scandal reverberates

Hillary Clinton used a forced appearance Thursday before a Republican-led panel probing Jeffrey Epstein to go on the offensive and demand US President Donald Trump testify about his own links to the sex offender.

Clinton told the congressional committee she had no information about Epstein's crimes, never recalled encountering him, and had never visited his island or flown on his plane, accusing the panel of trying to "protect one public official" – Trump.

James Comer, who chairs the committee that will also grill former president Bill Clinton on Friday, said "the purpose of the whole investigation is to try to understand many things about Epstein" – the deceased convicted sex offender.

Clinton challenged the panel saying "if this committee is serious about learning the truth about Epstein's trafficking crimes...it would ask [Trump] directly under oath about the tens of thousands of times he shows up in the Epstein files."

Democratic committee member Suhas Subramanyam alleged that "missing FBI files" omitted from the Epstein documents disclosures contain "serious accusations around sexual abuse" against Trump.

The Republican-led House Oversight Committee is probing those who were linked to Epstein, who died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial.

The Clintons had initially rejected subpoenas ordering them to testify in the panel's probe, but the Democratic power couple agreed to do so after House Republicans threatened to hold them in contempt of Congress.

Hillary 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 Maxwell." 

"Let me be as clear as I can. I do not."

The release of the Epstein case files has had repercussions around the globe, including the arrests in Britain of former prince Andrew and Peter Mandelson, the ex-ambassador to the United States.

Repercussions in UK

Britain's government says it will release documents on ex-prince Andrew's past role as a trade envoy, after the Epstein scandal widened with the arrest of a veteran UK politician.

The fallout from the publication last month by US authorities of millions of files related to late sex offender Epstein is reverberating around the British monarchy and political circles. 

It has piled pressure on Prime Minister Keir Starmer's Labour government to release documents on Andrew and former minister Peter Mandelson, who are both now the subject of high-profile police investigations.

Minister Chris Bryant told Parliament that the government would release vetting documents on Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor's appointment as trade envoy, a post he held from 2001 to 2011.

Bryant said publishing the documents was "the least we owe the victims" of Epstein, adding that Andrew was "a rude, arrogant and entitled man.”

Mountbatten-Windsor, who was stripped of his royal titles last year, is being probed by police over allegations that he shared sensitive documents with Epstein during his time as envoy.

The former prince was arrested last week on suspicion of misconduct in public office, and his brother King Charles III has said the "law must take its course.”

Mountbatten-Windsor, long embroiled in scandals over his friendship with Epstein, has denied any wrongdoing.

Virginia Giuffre, who died by suicide last year, claimed she was trafficked three times to have sex with the British royal, starting in 2001 and twice when she was 17. Andrew settled a US civil lawsuit in 2022 brought by Giuffre while not admitting liability.

Mandelson, a key figure in British politics for decades and Britain's envoy to Washington until September, is facing a separate misconduct in a public office probe, also related to his links to Epstein.

His appointment has triggered a political storm with two of Starmer's top aides resigning over the row and raising questions about the prime minister's judgement.

Files appear to show that Mandelson passed on financial information to the disgraced financier when he was UK business secretary around 2009-2010.

Mandelson has apologised for his friendship with Epstein and insisted he did not know about the financier's sexual offences, despite Epstein's 2008 conviction for child prostitution. He was arrested by police on Monday and held for questioning before being released on bail early on Tuesday.

Neither Mandelson nor Andrew have yet been charged with any offence.

– TIMES/AFP