Former AG Bill Barr says Trump not implicated in Epstein case

Former Attorney General Bill Barr has testified behind closed doors that he did not ever see information in the Jeffrey Epstein case that would implicate President Donald Trump in the disgraced financier's crimes.

Barr sat down with investigators in the House Oversight Committee on Monday. Oversight Chair James Comer (R-KY) told reporters, "[Barr] said that he had never seen anything that would implicate President Trump in any of this, and that he believed if there had been anything pertaining to President Trump with respect to the Epstein list, that he felt like the Biden administration would probably have leaked it out," per Fox News.

Barr, an official who worked during the first Trump administration, gave his testimony as the first person to testify in the Oversight Committee's probe into the handling of the case by the federal government.

Others have also been subpoenaed to testify in the case and will be deposed behind closed doors. The testimony from Barr comes as there has been heightened interest in the Epstein case after the Department of Justice in July said that Epstein killed himself and that there was no evidence that he had an incriminating "client list." The DOJ memo also stated that the department did not have evidence that there were other third parties connected to sex crimes against minors committed by Epstein and his former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell.

Comer added that Barr also "didn't know anything about a client list."

"Barr said he's never seen any information that showed that he was in the files, and that he would be shocked if there was anything pertaining to President Trump that was negative that the Biden administration wouldn't have leaked out prior to the presidential election," Comer added.

Barr served as US attorney general between February 2019 and December 2020 and had previously led the DOJ under former President George HW Bush.