Former President Bill Clinton sat down with the House Oversight Committee in Chappaqua, N.Y., on Friday Feb. 27, to give his long-awaited testimony on Jeffrey Epstein.

While his deposition was closed to the press, the Democrat released his powerful opening statement on X as the hearing began. After the hearing, Bill released a video on X, in which he read most of his opening statement as he explained why he testified.

"I'm here today for two reasons," Bill began. "The first is that I love my country. And America was built upon the idea that no person is above the law, even Presidents β€” especially Presidents."

Bill's impassioned statement also chastised the committee for pushing his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, to testify the day prior. While the former president is seen in photographs from the Department of Justice's trove of Epstein evidence, Hillary is not, and she said in her testimony that she never associated with the convicted sex offender.

"Before we start, I have to get personal," Bill, 79, said. "You made Hillary come in. She had nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein. Nothing. She has no memory of even meeting him. She neither traveled with him nor visited any of his properties. Whether you subpoenaed 10 people or 10,000, including her was simply not right."

He went on to maintain his long-repeated claim that he had "no idea of the crimes Epstein was committing." He has also denied any wrongdoing in regard to his relationship with the financier, who died in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.

"No matter how many photos you show me, I have two things that at the end of the day matter more than your interpretation of those 20-year-old photos: I know what I saw, and more importantly, what I didn't see," he said. "I know what I did, and more importantly, what I didn't do. I saw nothing, and I did nothing wrong."

"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," Bill continued. "But even with 20/20 hindsight, I saw nothing that ever gave me pause. We are only here because he hid it from everyone so well for so long. And by the time it came to light with his 2008 guilty plea, I had long stopped associating with him."

The former president didn't hesitate to take a few swipes at the Republican-led committee, quipping, "Since I am under oath, I will not falsely state that I am looking forward to your questions. But I am ready to answer them to the best of my abilities, consistent with the facts as I know them: the legitimate, the logical, and even the outlandish."

However, while he maintained his innocence, he admitted that his answers were likely to be frustrating at times.

"You'll often hear me say that I don't recall. That might be unsatisfying. But I'm not going to say something I'm not sure of," he asserted. "This was all a long time ago. And I am bound by my oath not to speculate, or to guess. This is not merely for my benefit, but because it doesn't help you for me to play detective 24 years later."

Both Clintons' testimonies are being recorded and could be released at a later date, at the discretion of committee Chairman James Comer.

However, the public got an inside look at Hillary's testimony on Thursday, Feb. 26, when GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert secretly took photos inside the deposition and sent them to far-right podcaster Benny Johnson, who posted them on social media.

The hearing came to a halt, as the former secretary of state reportedly requested that the press be allowed in after Boebert broke the closed-door rules. But Comer reportedly wouldn't allow it.

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Last month, the Clintons released a lengthy public letter announcing their refusal to appear for their originally scheduled testimonies, conceding that it might lead Comer to hold them in contempt.

"We've tried to give you the little information we have. We've done so because Mr. Epstein's crimes were horrific," they wrote. "If the Government didn't do all it could to investigate and prosecute these crimes, for whatever reason, that should be the focus of your work β€” to learn why and to prevent that from happening ever again."

They added, "You accepted the least from those who know the most but demand the most from those who know the least. To say you can't complete your work without speaking to us is simply bizarre."

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