Grace Eliza Goodwin
US reporter

We've been pouring over hours of video footage, released today, from Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton's depositions to the House Oversight Committee about their ties to Jeffrey Epstein.

Both Bill and Hillary denied having any prior knowledge of Epstein's crimes.

Here are some takeaways:

Hillary Clinton

• Clinton grew visibly angry when she found out a photo of her from inside the closed-door deposition had been leaked, violating the hearing's rules
• When asked if she's seen any Epstein files that reference the conspiracy theory known as "Pizzagate", Clinton expressed shock at the question and condemned the debunked theory
• Clinton and Nancy Mace got in a heated exchange over how Clinton knows Howard Lutnick

Bill Clinton

• Clinton recalled having a conversation with Trump in which Trump said he had a falling out with Epstein over a land dispute
• Clinton said the photos of him swimming in a pool and sitting in a hot tub from the Epstein files were probably taken in Brunei, adding that he does not know who the redacted woman in the photo is
• Clinton said he had never sent emails to Ghislaine Maxwell

We're ending our live coverage now, but you can read more about the videos released today in our news story here.

Image source, GOP Oversight/Handout

During his testimony, Bill Clinton said his relationship with ended Epstein in 2003.

The former president says it ended after he met donors that were more suited to support his charity work for the Clinton Global Initiative.

"I thought Mr Epstein was an interesting man, but I didn't think he was really interested in what I was doing," Clinton testified.

We're still looking through the videos of Bill and Hillary Clinton's testimonies.

One moment we've just reviewed is of the former president saying he could not recall the circumstances behind a photo of himself and his wife Hillary Clinton shaking hands with Jeffrey Epstein.

"Neither she nor I remembered shaking his hand all those years ago," he says. He goes on to criticise the committee for calling his wife as a witness.

"So I don't think that was right. On the other hand, I do think you should be talking to me. I think you should have called me. I did take those plane trips with him, and you have a right to ask those questions."

A deposition is a legal term used in US proceedings where one party is gathering information from a source. It is a witness or party's sworn testimony, given under oath.

With the Clintons, the House Oversight Committee - a small and powerful group of US lawmakers - administered and supervised the proceedings.

Bill and Hillary Clinton had alternating one-hour rounds of questions in their respective depositions.

Questions started with the Republicans, because they have the majority in the committee. Then the Democrats had their turn. It alternated until the sessions wrapped up.

Image source, House Oversight Commitee

In his testimony, Bill Clinton confirmed that he had written a note for Epstein's 50th birthday book.

A book of letters to mark the occasion has already come to light, and includes a controversial note that appears to be from Donald Trump. The White House denies Trump wrote the note, or drew the accompanying picture of a woman's body.

In his deposition, Clinton confirmed that the note bears his handwriting and signature.

He says he can't recall who asked him to write it.

Republican Nancy Mace and Hillary Clinton engaged in a heated back-and-forth when the testimony turned towards US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

Mace asks Clinton how she knows Lutnick, and things escalate from there as the two speak over each other.

You can watch the exchange in the video below.

The Epstein files revealed Lutnick planned a visit to Epstein's island with his family in 2012 - years after he claimed to have cut ties with the sex offender.

The commerce secretary previously told Congress he cut ties with Epstein in 2005 after the late financier - a neighbour of Lutnick in New York - used sexual innuendo to explain why he owned a massage table in a room of his home.

A Commerce Department spokesperson previously told the BBC that Lutnick had never been accused of any wrongdoing in connection to Epstein.

Image source, US Justice Department/Handout

At one point in his deposition, Bill Clinton is asked whether Trump should pardon or grant clemency to Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking victims for Epstein.

“I don’t think I should comment on that,” says Clinton.

Referring to Maxwell's arrest, he says: "This was really hard for me when it came out."

"We were friendly with Ghislaine," he says.

He adds: "I was sad. But it was terrible what she did and she should be punished. Somebody besides me should make a decision on what it is."

Maxwell has repeatedly asked Trump to grant her clemency.

In his answer about clemency, Clinton adds that he thinks Trump made a "mistake" when he pardoned the Trump supporters who participated in the riot on Capitol Hill in 2021.

Image source, GOP Oversight/Handout

During the testimony last Thursday, Republican Lauren Boebert asked Hillary Clinton about "Pizzagate". It's a debunked conspiracy theory that a paedophilia ring linked to Hillary Clinton's inner circle was operating out of a Washington DC pizzeria.

After a bit of back and forth between Clinton's lawyer and Boebert about what exactly the lawmaker is asking, Boebert clarifies that she is asking if Clinton has reviewed any Epstein files that reference "Pizzagate".

"Pizzagate was totally made up. It was an outrageous allegation that ended up hurting a number of people," Clinton answers, adding "I can't believe you're even referencing it".

Boebert asks a few more questions about Pizzagate, which Clinton's lawyers object to.

Image source, The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

"How many times did Ghislaine Maxwell visit your home" in Chappaqua, New York, Republican Nancy Mace asks Bill Clinton, more than four hours into the video of the deposition.

"I have no idea," the former president says.

"Who invited her?" Mace asks.

"I don't know," says Clinton. "Hillary had political events there."

"I will volunteer something," Clinton continues, as his lawyers advise him to stop speaking.

"She was never in my house in Chappaqua for personal reasons."

On his past ties to Maxwell, who is the convicted associate of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, he says: "There's a logical explanation. We didn't know."

Asked how Maxwell managed to dupe so many powerful people, Clinton says he "thought about it a lot" but doesn't know the answer.

In the video of her testimony, Hillary Clinton is asked several times about any interactions she had with Ghislaine Maxwell, the British socialite convicted of sex trafficking.

Clinton says she has no recollection of speaking with Maxwell at the wedding of Clinton's daughter Chelsea in 2010.

She says there were more than 500 people at the wedding, and she was mainly focused on her daughter.

Maxwell attended as the guest of a longtime friend, Clinton says.

In his opening remarks to the House Oversight Committee, Clinton denies that he knew of any wrongdoing by Epstein, and says he hopes that his involvement in the Epstein investigation will "prevent something like this from happening again".

Clinton says he was only a "brief acquaintance" of Epstein, and that their relationship "ended years before his crimes came to light".

He also shared his concerns for Epstein's victims.

Watch a clip from the beginning of his testimony below.

During Hillary Clinton's deposition, Republican Nancy Mace asks if she was concerned when she saw photos of her husband in the Epstein files, including one of Bill Clinton in a hot tub.

Clinton says she is not here to offer opinions or to speculate.

Mace then presses the issue, asking several more questions about how Clinton felt.

Clinton reiterates that she will not be answering this line of questioning.

We're still watching through the two videos that have been released by the House Oversight Committee.

The two videos combined go for nine hours and nine minutes.

There's no official transcripts available yet, so finding key moments from the behind-closed-doors sessions that were held last week is taking some time.

There are some moments from the testimonies that lawmakers, and the Clintons themselves, spoke about to the media last week.

But there's likely other interesting parts of their testimony that we won't know about until we've finished watching the entirety of the footage.

Image source, CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

Several hours into Hillary Clinton's hearing, Republican Representative Eric Burlison says he'd like to begin his questioning with some "light-hearted questions".

He says that Laurance Rockefeller spearheaded an effort to get government files about UFOs declassified under Bill Clinton's presidency. He then says that while Hillary Clinton was running for president, one of her advisors publicly said she would release those UFO files if elected.

Burlison then asks Clinton if she's pleased now that these files may be released. Last month, Trump directed US government to prepare a release of files on UFOs and aliens.

Clinton answers that she is pleased, adding: "I think whatever can be disclosed should be disclosed".

Clinton is asked about an email sent to Ghislaine Maxwell from his top aide Doug Band and whether the account it was sent from belongs to him.

"Practically no. I never sent one email on it," he begins.

He says that at the time, about nine months after he left office, he did not even own a phone. He recalls only two times in his entire life that he has ever sent an email.

Clinton reiterates that he did not send emails using the WJC address - initials for William Jefferson Clinton - that his top aide, Doug Band, had told Maxwell he and his boss "share".

The email address appears hundreds of times in the files released by the US justice department. Band corresponded with Maxwell from the address, including flirty emails in which she called him a "super stud" and complimented his physical prowess.

Clinton is seen reading a print-out of that email as a congressman reads it into the record. He chuckles at one of the crude comments, and at one point appears to shake his head in disbelief and utters "unbelievable".

"I did not know, nor did I need to know, that they had a personal relationship," he says. He says that, as far as he knew, Band only spoke to Maxwell in a business capacity.

He adds that he does not know whether his former top aide had a "physical relationship" with Maxwell.

Band did not respond to messages seeking comment from the BBC last month. He told the New York Times previously that he did not have a romantic relationship with Maxwell.

Image source, Getty Images

More now on Bill Clinton's comments about Donald Trump, which were picked up by Democrat lawmakers on the day of his deposition.

As we reported below, Clinton says Trump told him: "We've had some great times over the years. But we fell out. All because of a real estate deal.'"

Maxwell Frost, a Democrat on the House Oversight committee, said last Friday that Clinton's comments "directly refutes Trump’s claims about why he fell out with Epstein".

The White House has said that Trump kicked Epstein out of his Mar-a-Lago club "for being a creep", though it has been reported in the past that the pair fell out over a Palm Beach estate.

Trump was a friend of Epstein's for years, but the president has said they fell out in the early 2000s, two years before Epstein was first arrested. Trump has consistently denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein.

Image source, The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

In the middle of his deposition, Bill Clinton is asked whether US President Donald Trump should be compelled to testify to the committee.

“That's for you to decide,” he says. "But he did know him well."

Clinton then takes the moment to comment on a personal conversation he once had with Trump about Epstein around 2002 or 2003.

“[Trump] never said anything to me to make me think he was involved in anything improper with regard to Epstein either. He just didn't. He just said: 'We were friends and then we had a falling out over a land deal, property deal.' That's all.”

He says the conversation took place on Trump's golf course during a fundraising event.

Trump, he says, must have known that Clinton had previously flown on Epstein's plane.

He says Trump told him: "We've had some great times over the years. But we fell out. All because of a real estate deal.'"

"And he said: 'I'm sorry that happened.' That's all."

Clinton is asked if he recalls who brought up the topic of Epstein.

"No, but I'd be shocked if I did. I just don't do that," he responds.

Asks if Trump elaborated on his times shared with Epstein, Clinton says Trump did not put any "sexual spin on" the conversation.

We're bringing some more of the reaction by Hillary Clinton's team to the leaked photo, which we reported on a little earlier.

The hearing was paused for a break and, when it reconvenes, Clinton's lawyer scolds the committee for the image of her at the hearing leaked to the public.

"We find it unacceptable," Clinton's lawyer says. "We find it unprofessional and we find it unfair. We are looking forward to this being conducted under the rules and being conducted consistent with expectations."

Committee chairman Comer says it will not happen again, and adds that he is also disappointed that Clinton's opening statement was leaked to the press before her hearing began.

Clinton's lawyer corrects Comer, saying the opening statement was not leaked. Clinton herself had posted it on social media.

Clinton does not speak during this exchange between her lawyer and Comer.

Image source, Reuters/US Department of Justice

About halfway through his deposition, Bill Clinton is asked about a photo released by the US justice department showing him in a hot tub.

The congressman asking the question says the public is interested in knowing the "context" and "details" of the photo.

"I don't think I ever knew the photo was taken," begins Clinton.

He says he's "almost sure" the photo was taken in Brunei, at the end of a "long" trip across Asia.

"The Sultan of Brunei was a man I had gotten to know well in my eight years as president," Clinton recalls.

He adds that the Asian leader wanted to help with the Clinton Global Initative, his international development foundation, and suggested a hotel for him to stay in while he was visiting.

He said "I want you to stay at this hotel and I hope you will use the pool. So I did. And then I got out, and went to bed, exhausted", Clinton says with a chuckle.

Asked about another person in the photo, whose identity is edited out by the justice department, Clinton twice says: "I don't know who that is."

He adds that there were other people in the nearby pool, which was adjacent to the hot tub, and that they were all part of his travelling party, and that no children were present.

"I sat in the hot tub for five minutes, or whatever it was, and I got up and went to bed," he says.

Asked by the congressman whether any sexual activity occurred that night, he responds no.

About an hour into Hillary Clinton's deposition, one of her lawyers informs the room that a photo from inside the deposition room has been leaked to the public.

The lawyer asks how this is permissible given the closed-door rules of the hearing, and particularly considering how Clinton and her team had requested a public hearing from the beginning but were denied.

"I am done with this. If you guys are doing that, I am done. You can hold me in contempt from now until the cows come home. This is just typical behaviour," Clinton says, clearly angered by the leak.

A lawmaker then admits to sharing a photo from inside the room, but she says it was before the hearing began.

Clinton bangs her fist on the table and says "It doesn't matter. We are all abiding by the same rules."

"I am done," Clinton says, standing up from her chair. The hearing then goes off the record.