Hillary Clinton calls for Trump to testify as she faces US House Epstein panel

A Republican-led panel grilled Hillary Clinton on Thursday over her links to Jeffrey Epstein but she called for Donald Trump to testify about the president’s own connections to the convicted sex offender.Clinton told the congressional committee she had no information about Epstein’s crimes, did not recall encountering him and had never visited his island or flown on his plane, accusing the panel of trying to “protect one public official” – Trump.“You have compelled me to testify, fully aware that I have no knowledge that would assist your investigation, in order to distract attention from President Trump’s actions and to cover them up despite legitimate calls for answers,” Clinton said.James Comer, who chairs the committee that will also grill former president Bill Clinton on Friday, said “the purpose of the whole investigations is to try to understand many things about Epstein” – the deceased convicted sex offender.Clinton challenged the panel, saying, “if this committee is serious about learning the truth about Epstein’s trafficking crimes … it would ask [Trump] directly under oath about the tens of thousands of times he shows up in the Epstein files”.The top Democrat on the committee, Robert Garcia, also called on Trump to testify “to answer the questions that are being asked across this country from survivors”.