Trump backs Bill and Hillary Clinton amid Epstein probe in GOP rebuke

President Donald Trump said he's 'bothered' by a Republican-led investigation into Ex-President Bill Clinton's connections to pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. 

The House Oversight Committee has been wrangling with Bill and Hillary Clinton for the couple to sit for a deposition in the panel's Epstein probe. 

This week, it was announced that Bill will sit for a deposition on February 27, while Hillary will sit before the panel the day before, with the former first lady demanding the proceedings take place in public.  

'It bothers me that somebody is going after Bill Clinton,' Trump told NBC News on Wednesday, indicating he may be at odds with the Republican-led investigation.

'See, I like Bill Clinton. I still like Bill Clinton,' he added. 'I liked his behavior toward me. I thought he got me. He understood me.'

His remarks stand in contrast to those of House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, the Republican leading the probe, who has accused the Clintons of delaying their appearances and defying orders from Congress. 

When pressed by the Daily Mail about why the president appears to be defending Clinton, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said it's because the two presidents share a 'good relationship.' 

'The President has respect for the former president,' Leavitt explained. 'They shared a good relationship.' 

If the president wanted to, given his sweeping influence over Republicans in Congress, he presumably could tell Comer to stand down on the investigation and halt the Clintons' depositions. 

But there is no indication of that happening. 

The House Oversight Committee declined to comment. 

When the Oversight Committee first announced it was seeking sessions with the Clintons, the Democratic power couple fought back, claiming the depositions were not necessary. 

Now, the couple is arguing that the closed-door depositions should be replaced by on-camera hearings for transparency's sake. 

'You love to talk about transparency,' Hillary Clinton wrote on Thursday. 'There's nothing more transparent than a public hearing, cameras on. We will be there.' 

The Clintons' agreeing to the deposition came after Comer threatened to hold the couple in contempt of Congress should they not comply. 

Trump's sudden embrace of the former Democratic leader has sparked fury among some of the president's supporters.

'This is bothersome. Bill Clinton is a serial sexual predator and rapist,' reacted Juanita Broaddrick, a fervent Trump supporter who claims to have been raped by Bill Clinton in 1978 when the Democrat was the attorney general for Arkansas. 

The bothersome Epstein investigation remark is also a departure from what the president said in November, when he instructed Attorney General Pam Bondi 'to investigate Jeffrey Epstein’s involvement and relationship with Bill Clinton.'

Trump has also noted how Clinton repeatedly visited Epstein's private island. 

'And by the way, I never went to the island, and Bill Clinton went there supposedly 28 times,' the president said in July 2025.