President Donald Trump defended former President Bill Clinton Friday as Clinton began his sworn deposition before the House Oversight Committee about his relationship with late financier and convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Trump was preparing to head to Corpus Christi, Texas, for an election event when reporters asked him what he thought of Clinton testifying before lawmakers in a closed-door deposition about his connection to Epstein.
"I don't like seeing him deposed," Trump said. "But you know, they certainly went after me a lot more than that... I like him, and I don't like seeing him deposed."
Trump was also asked if he thinks Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick should also be deposed over his ties to Epstein and questions about their relationship. Republicans have signaled this week that they could also question Lutnick in the ongoing Epstein probe.
"Well, Howard would go in and do whatever he has to say. He's a very innocent guy. He's doing a good job," Trump said.
Trump maintained that he did not have any ties to Epstein, despite his name appearing throughout the Department of Justice's 3 million documents, with him mentioned about 38,000 times.
"I don't know anything about the Epstein files. I've been fully exonerated," Trump said.
Former President Clinton delivered his opening statements Friday under oath and shared a statement on his social media.
"I saw nothing, and I did nothing wrong," Clinton said.
Neither the Clintons nor Trump has been accused of any wrongdoing.
