Former President Bill Clinton is once again at the center of uncomfortable questions surrounding his long-documented association with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein — and this time, it’s a poolside photo that has social media buzzing.
During a recent deposition before the House Oversight Committee, Clinton was questioned about newly surfaced images showing him in a swimming pool and hot tub with **Ghislaine Maxwell**, Epstein’s former partner who is now serving a prison sentence for her role in grooming and trafficking underage girls.
Clinton insisted the photos were taken at a hotel in Brunei during a trip he says was arranged at the invitation of the country’s sultan. According to Clinton, the gathering had “no connection” to any sexual misconduct.
But it wasn’t just the content of his answers that caught attention — it was his demeanor.
A clip from the deposition has gone viral, showing Clinton staring at the now-infamous hot tub photo for an extended period before his attorney physically removed it from his hands. Moments later, he reportedly tried to retrieve it, smiling and laughing as he examined the image.
One social media user dryly captioned the clip, “Great optic.”
When asked directly whether he engaged in any sexual activity with the woman in the hot tub photo — whose identity was redacted — Clinton responded flatly, “No.”
The Justice Department, under federal transparency laws related to the Epstein case, has been releasing documents and images tied to the convicted sex trafficker while redacting identifying information about victims.
Clinton told lawmakers that his presence at the Brunei hotel was due to an invitation from the nation’s sultan, whom he said he befriended during his presidency through Asia-Pacific leadership conferences.
“It’s a tiny place but a very wealthy one,” Clinton said, recounting that he used the hotel pool at the sultan’s encouragement and then went to bed “exhausted.”
He acknowledged that both Epstein and Maxwell were present during the trip but claimed he could not recall who else was there. He added that, to the best of his recollection, no minors were present and that a Secret Service agent was on site.
Notably absent from his testimony was a clear explanation for why Epstein and Maxwell were accompanying a former president on such an excursion in the first place.
Clinton has long maintained that he had no knowledge of Epstein’s criminal activities. Yet photos, flight logs, and testimony have repeatedly placed him in Epstein’s orbit over the years.
Perhaps the most eyebrow-raising moment came when Clinton reportedly stated during the deposition that he had never lied under oath — a claim that many Americans remember differently. After all, it was sworn testimony about his relationship with a White House intern that led to his impeachment in the late 1990s.
As one commenter quipped under the viral clip: “Only a Clinton would lie about lying.”
With congressional investigators continuing to dig into Epstein’s network and connections, the resurfaced images are unlikely to quiet questions about who knew what — and when.
For now, Clinton’s smiling review of that hot tub photo may linger longer in the public memory than his carefully worded denials.
