Washington DC - Former President Bill Clinton faces a grilling from a congressional panel on Friday on his well-documented links to Jeffrey Epstein as Democrats seek to shift focus onto Donald Trump's own ties to the convicted sex offender.

Clinton features prominently throughout the latest Epstein files disclosures, with the former president insisting that he broke ties with him well before the disgraced billionaire's 2008 conviction for sex offenses.

Previously unseen photographs from include one showing him reclining in a hot tub, part of the image obscured by a stark black rectangle.

In another, Clinton is pictured swimming alongside a dark-haired woman who appears to be Epstein's accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell.

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His appearance follows that of his wife, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, who testified Thursday and defiantly called for President Donald Trump – who like Bill Clinton had ties with Epstein – to appear before the panel.

"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," she said in an opening statement published online.

The depositions under oath are being held behind closed doors, with Bill Clinton likening the proceedings to a "kangaroo court." The couple has called for them to be open and televised.

The grilling comes with greater peril for the ex-president than for his wife, as he has acknowledged extensive interactions with Epstein, but said he never visited the shady financier's private Caribbean island and he denies any wrongdoing.

Epstein mingled with the world's rich, famous and powerful, and was convicted in 2008 for soliciting sex from girls as young as 14.

He died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while facing trial on sex trafficking charges. His death was ruled a suicide.

The Republican-led House Oversight Committee is probing those who were linked to Epstein, particularly in light of the Justice Department's disclosures of millions of new documents related to its investigation of him.