Former US president Bill Clinton has testified in a closed-door deposition that he “did nothing wrong” in his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and saw no signs of his abuse.

Clinton was grilled for several hours in New York over his connections to the disgraced financier from more than two decades ago — the first ex-president compelled to testify to Congress.

He said that “even with 20 /20 hindsight I saw nothing that ever gave me pause”.

The former Democratic president released his full opening statement to social media.

“I’m here today for two reasons. The first is that I love my country. And America was built upon the idea that no person is above the law, even Presidents — especially Presidents,” Clinton said, according to the statement.

“The second reason I’m here is that the girls and women whose lives Jeffrey Epstein destroyed deserve not only justice, but healing. They’ve been waiting too long for both.”

Clinton said his “brief acquaintance” with Epstein ended years before his crimes came to light and he “never witnessed” any indication of what was truly going on.

“I had no idea of the crimes Epstein was committing. No matter how many photos you show me, I have two things that at the end of the day matter more than your interpretation of those 20-year-old photos.

“I know what I saw, and more importantly, what I didn’t see.

“I know what I did, and more importantly, what I didn’t do.

“I saw nothing, and I did nothing wrong.”

“We are only here because he hid it from everyone so well for so long. And by the time it came to light with his 2008 guilty plea, I had long stopped associating with him.”

He ended his statement with: “Fire away”.

On Thursday (US time), Hillary Clinton told Congress members that she had no knowledge of how Epstein had sexually abused underage girls and had no recollection of even meeting him.

Republicans were relishing the opportunity to scrutinise the former Democratic president under oath.

“No one’s accusing anyone of any wrongdoing, but I think the American people have a lot of questions,” Comer said.

Republicans have wanted to question Bill Clinton about Epstein for years, especially as conspiracy theories arose following Epstein’s 2019 suicide in a New York jail cell while he faced sex trafficking charges.

Those calls reached a fever pitch late last year when several photos of the former president surfaced in the Department of Justice’s first release of case files on Epstein and Maxwell, a British socialite who was convicted of sex trafficking in December 2021 but maintains she’s innocent.

Bill Clinton was photographed on a plane seated alongside a woman, whose face is redacted, with his arm around her.

Another photo showed Clinton and Maxwell in a pool with another person whose face was redacted.

Epstein also visited the White House several times during Clinton’s presidency, and the pair later made several international trips together for their humanitarian work.

Comer claimed the committee has collected evidence that Epstein visited the White House 17 times and that Bill Clinton flew on Epstein’s aeroplane 27 times.

In the lead-up to the deposition, Bill Clinton has insisted he had limited knowledge about Epstein and was unaware of any sexual abuse he committed.

“I think the chronology of the connection that he had with Epstein ended several years before anything about Epstein’s criminal activities came to light,” Hillary Clinton said at the conclusion of her deposition Thursday.

Comer has pledged extensive questioning of the former president.

He claimed that Hillary Clinton had repeatedly deferred questions about Epstein to her husband.

Democrats, who have supported the push to get answers from Bill Clinton, are arguing that it sets a precedent that should also apply to President Donald Trump, a Republican who had his own relationship with  Epstein.

-with AAP