Former President Bill Clinton was left visibly shaken — and speechless — after lawmakers grilled him and his wife, Hillary, over their ties to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
During last week’s testimony before a Republican-led congressional panel investigating Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, Clinton panicked over now viral photos released as part of the Jeffrey Epstein files that infamously show Clinton in a hot tub and a pool with a woman whose face is redacted.
Clinton told the House Oversight Committee he had no knowledge of the sex crimes of Epstein.
However, committee members demanded that Clinton explain why he was in a photo that shows him in a hot tub with a woman whose face is covered with a black square and another picture of him in a swimming pool with Maxwell and an unidentified woman.
During the testimony, Clinton said the photos were taken at a hotel during a visit he made to Brunei at the invitation of the Sultan, who was interested in helping with the Clinton Foundation’s AIDS initiative.
“He invited me to stay there and he said, ‘I want you to stay at this hotel and I hope you’ll use the pool,'” Clinton said.
“I swam around. I sat in the hot tub for five minutes or whatever it was and I got up and went to bed.”
“I also believe that there was a Secret Service agent there at the other end of the pool.”
Clinton said he did not know the identity of the unidentified woman in the photos but he believed she was a member of the traveling party.
“I don’t know who that is,” he said.
Asked if he had “engaged in any sexual activities” with the woman in the photos, Clinton replied: “No.”
However, the committee continued to press Clinton, including demanding the former president explain why Epstein might have said that he “likes them young” in a lengthy exchange between Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) and Clinton.
“Did you know one of the witnesses who testified in the Epstein cases said that you, quote, ‘like them young.’ Why would Epstein say that about you?” Mace (R-SC) bluntly asked of Clinton.
Clinton’s attorney interjected immediately, saying: “Are you asking his opinion? Are you asking him to think about why Mr. Epstein would say something about him?”
“Correct. Why would Epstein say that about the president?” Mace continued.
Clinton’s attorney reframed the question before Clinton could begin to answer, saying, “So she’s asking you to try to be in Mr. Epstein’s mind and guess at what Mr. Epstein would have thought about —”
“‘Clinton likes them young,’ referring to girls,” Mace repeated.
“First of all,” he said, and then paused again before adding, “That’s not true” said Clinton.
“What’s not true?” Mace asked.
“That I have any interest in underage girls,” Clinton said.
“I didn’t say underage, Mr. President,” Mace interjected. “I said young.”
“That’s still not true,” Clinton said.
Mace’s follow-up question, clearly referencing his former intern Monica Lewinsky, also appeared to startle the former president: “Is an intern young?”
“Yes,” Clinton conceded.
“At my age, anybody younger than I am is young.”
Here’s footage of the entire testimony —
Asked about Jeffrey Epstein allegedly saying that Bill Clinton “likes them young,” Clinton denies having any interest in “young” girls.
Q: Is an intern young?
Clinton: Yes. pic.twitter.com/0aEym00yjP
— Decensored News (@decensorednews) March 3, 2026
Clinton had continued to insist that he had never witnessed Epstein doing anything that would have led him to believe that the late convicted pedophile had ever been involved in trafficking underage girls.
However, the former president did acknowledge during his testimony that he flew on Epstein’s private plane several times in the early 2000s for Clinton Foundation-related humanitarian work.