Longtime Clinton aide walks back claim former president visited Epstein’s island | CNN Politics

A longtime aide to Bill Clinton walked back a prior claim that the former president visited Jeffrey Epstein’s island, according to GOP Rep. Nancy Mace, who questioned him, and two sources familiar with closed-door testimony on Capitol Hill. Doug Band, the former Clinton aide, is the 17th person to testify behind closed doors as part of the House Oversight Committee’s sprawling probe into Epstein’s orbit and how previous investigations were handled. The panel sought Band’s voluntary testimony after Clinton testified before the committee in February. The former president told lawmakers at the time that Band worked for him for years and that the aide knew both Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, the late sex offender’s accomplice. In 2020, Band told Vanity Fair that Clinton visited Epstein’s private island in 2003. In February, however, Clinton testified that he was never on Epstein’s island — and on Tuesday, Band amended his previous assertion during his own interview with the panel, the sources said. “He turned out to clearly not know the difference between the truth and a lie,” Mace told CNN. “He contradicted his Vanity Fair interview from a couple of years ago. He