Former US President Bill Clinton told lawmakers on Friday that he had "no idea" about the crimes committed by late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

"I saw nothing, and I did nothing wrong," Clinton said, as he faced hours of questioning from a US congressional committee about his ties to the disgraced financier. 

"Even with 20/20 hindsight, I saw nothing that ever gave me pause," Clinton added.

As proceedings began, the committee's Republican chairman, James Comer, said Clinton would be asked about photos, emails and travel movements in connection with Epstein.

The closed-door deposition in Chappaqua, New York, marks the first time a former US president has been compelled to testify to Congress.

What do we know about Clinton's ties to Epstein?

Bill Clinton's testimony comes a day after his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, told the panel that she did not recall meeting Epstein and had no knowledge of his crimes. 

But Bill Clinton's relationship with Epstein and his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell was well documented. Epstein is known to have visited the White House a number of times while Clinton was president. Clinton also traveled in Epstein's plane several times in the early 2000s after he left office. 

Clinton, who served as US president from January 1993 until January 2001, told the committee that ‌he would never have used Epstein's plane if he had known about his alleged sex trafficking of underage girls. 

Epstein was jailed in 2008 for soliciting ‌prostitution from a minor. He died by suicide in jail in 2019 while facing federal sex-trafficking crimes.

"We are only here because he hid it from everyone so well for so long," Clinton said. "By the time it came to light with his 2008 guilty plea, I had long stopped associating with him."

Bill Clinton appears in several photographs with women whose faces have been redacted — part of a tranche of millions of documents released by the Justice Department. In one of the images, he has his arm around a woman on a plane. In another, he's in a pool with Maxwell and a third person whose face is redacted. 

Bill Clinton was also expected to face questions about Epstein's alleged role in the Clinton Foundation and the Clinton Global Initiative.

The Clintons have not been accused of any wrongdoing.

Democrats call for Trump to testify

Democrats argue President Donald Trump should also face questioning about his Epstein ties under oath, saying Bill Clinton's deposition sets a precedent.

"President Clinton's presence here today under oath highlights the Donald Trump-sized gaping hole in Chairman Comer's investigation," said Democratic Representative James Walkinshaw of Virginia.

Trump, who appears numerous times in the Epstein files, says he broke off ties before Epstein's 2008 conviction.

Comer has ruled out the possibility of a Trump appearance before the committee.

Edited by: Sean Sinico