Maxwell Frost

U.S. Representative Maxwell Frost said former President Bill Clinton’s testimony before the House Oversight Committee on Friday contradicted President Donald Trump’s explanation about his falling-out with sex offender and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.

When reached by Newsweek, the White House pointed to recent remarks from press secretary Karoline Leavitt.

“The President has always remained consistent in that he kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his club at Mar-a-Lago because, frankly, Jeffrey Epstein was a creep,” she said.

Why It Matters

Clinton testified before the House Oversight Committee after being named in released documents related to Epstein, who was found dead in a New York City jail in 2019 while awaiting sex trafficking charges. The Department of Justice (DOJ) has published millions of pages after Congress compelled their release late last year. The files have drawn scrutiny to prominent people who have been named in them, though simply being named does not implicate one in wrongdoing.

What To Know

Frost, a Florida Democrat, shared a piece of Clinton’s alleged testimony in a post to X Friday afternoon. The post was in response to Representative James Comer, the Kentucky Republican who leads the committee, claiming Clinton said Trump never said anything to him that made him think he was involved with Epstein’s wrongdoing.

“I’m happy to clarify. President Clinton brought up a conversation he had with Trump in NYC re: Epstein. President Clinton said that Trump told him that he had a falling out with Epstein due to a land dispute. This directly refutes Trump’s claims about why he fell out with Epstein,” Frost wrote.

Trump has said in the past that their falling-out was related to employees who worked at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. He claimed in July 2025 that the break occurred after Epstein poached employees from the club’s spa.

The president said that people were “hired by him” out of the spa and that others would complain that Epstein was “taking people from the spa.”

"When I heard about it, I told him, listen, I don’t want you taking our people, whether it was spa or not spa. I don’t want him taking people, and he was fine and then not too long after that, I said, ‘Out of here,’” Trump told media members on Air Force One last year, according to audio reported by PBS News.

Bill Clinton Deposition: What We Know He Said

Clinton shared the opening statement to his deposition in a post to X.

During that statement, he said he believes no person is above the law, “especially presidents.”

“Democracy requires every person to play their part, and I hope that by being here today, we can bring ourselves a little further away from the brink and back to being a country where we can disagree with one another civilly—where the search for truth and justice outweighs the partisan urge to score points and create spectacle. I’ll do my part, and I hope you’ll do yours,” he said.

He added that the girls and women whose lives Epstein “destroyed deserve not only justice, but healing.”

The former president said his “acquaintance” with Epstein ended “years before his crimes came to light,” and he “never witnessed during our limited interactions any indication of what was truly going on.”

According to Comer, Clinton also said that it’s up to the committee to decide whether Trump should testify.

"And President Clinton said, 'That's for you to decide,'" Comer said. "And the president went on to say that [Trump] has never said anything to me to make me think he was involved. And he meant with Epstein."

Representative Robert Garcia, California Democrat, responded to Comer’s remarks in comments to reporters, calling on the committee to release the full transcript. That would bring up “some very important new questions about comments President Trump has actually said in the past,” he said.

"I think the best response to that would be to view the complete record of what actually he said," Garcia added. "We're not going to disclose what was said because that's not in the rules. The Republicans keep breaking the rules."

Why Is Bill Clinton Testifying?

Before the deposition, Comer said that the panel is examining how Epstein was able to retain relationships with prominent political, business and cultural figures even after pleading guilty in 2008 to Florida state charges involving an underage girl. Comer said those connections raise broader questions about influence, access and whether powerful individuals were ever fully scrutinized.

Clinton has not been accused of criminal conduct and has repeatedly said he was unaware of Epstein’s sexual abuse at the time they knew each other.

He has acknowledged that he had a yearslong relationship with Epstein, but has said he did not have any contact with him after Epstein was accused of sex crimes and never visited his private island of Little St. James in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Democrats on the panel supported questioning both Clintons but argued that the investigation should be applied consistently and have called for Trump to also testify before the committee.

Former first lady and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testified on Thursday. She also said she had no knowledge of Epstein’s wrongdoing or any recollection of ever meeting him, according to statements from lawmakers present.

Hillary Clinton's proceeding was briefly paused after U.S. Representative Lauren Boebert, Colorado Republican, shared a photograph of Hillary taken during the closed‑door deposition with right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson, who posted it on social media.

What People Are Saying

Former President Bill Clinton, on X Friday: “As someone who grew up in a home with domestic abuse, not only would I not have flown on his plane if I had any inkling of what he was doing—I would have turned him in myself and led the call for justice for his crimes, not sweetheart deals.”

Representative Ro Khanna, California Democrat, during a press briefing: “A new precedent has been set in America today. Before this, we had the Trump rule. Trump defied a congressional subpoena with the January 6th committee. He said presidents don’t have to testify. Now, we have the Clinton rule, which is that presidents and their families have to testify when Congress issues a subpoena.”

Representative Anna Paulina Luna, Florida Republican, to reporters: “Just first of all, a quick update, President Clinton is being very cooperative.”

What Happens Next

Lawmakers continue investigations into Epstein amid calls for the DOJ to release more of its files pertaining to the sex offender.