Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the Republican-controlled House Oversight Committee on Thursday that she had no knowledge of the crimes committed by the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his longtime associate, Ghislaine Maxwell. She went on to slam the committee for compelling her to testify in its investigation into Epstein and accused it of doing so to “distract attention” from President Donald Trump.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]“The Committee justified its subpoena to me based on its assumption that I have information regarding the investigations into the criminal activities of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. Let me be as clear as I can. I do not,” Clinton said in her opening statement, which she shared on X on Thursday. “As I stated in my sworn declaration on January 13, I had no idea about their criminal activities. I do not recall ever encountering Mr. Epstein. I never flew on his plane or visited his island, homes, or offices. I have nothing to add to that.”
Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, initially refused to testify in the House Oversight Committee’s inquiry into Epstein. The couple’s lawyers said at the time that the Clintons had already shared the “limited information” they had about Epstein and Maxwell to the committee, and the Clintons expressed their frustration with the committee for subpoenaing them, accusing the committee’s chairman, Republican Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, of playing “partisan politics.”
But earlier this month, as Republicans were seeking to hold them in contempt of Congress, the Clintons agreed to testify in the committee’s investigation. Hillary Clinton is giving testimony on Thursday, and her husband is set to give his deposition the following day. Both depositions are being held behind closed doors, though a committee spokesperson confirmed that videos and transcripts will be released.
Read more: Your Questions About the Clintons Testifying Before Congress, Answered
Bill Clinton, one of several prominent figures who had ties to Epstein, appears in a number of photos and documents that have been released in relation to the disgraced financier’s case. Hillary Clinton’s name also appears in the so-called “Epstein files,” but nothing included in the released documents appears to establish a personal link between her and the late sex offender. In a BBC interview last week, Hillary Clinton said she didn’t “recall ever meeting” Epstein, though she said she had met Maxwell “on a few occasions.” Neither of the Clintons have been accused of any wrongdoing related to Epstein and Maxwell.
On Thursday, proceedings for Hillary Clinton’s testimony were paused momentarily, when it became evident that a photo from the deposition had been shared on social media, news outlets reported. The photo, which was shared by the conservative commentator Benny Johnson, depicted Hillary Clinton sitting at a table with an individual on either side of her. Johnson said in his social media post that Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado had shared the photo with him.
In her opening statement, Hillary Clinton said she was “horrified” by Epstein and Maxwell’s crimes. She outlined her work advocating for women and girls, including survivors of human trafficking, forced labor, and sexual slavery. She condemned the Trump Administration, which she said “gutted” a federal agency dedicated to addressing this issue.
“A committee endeavoring to stopping human trafficking would seek to understand what specific steps are needed to fix a system that allowed Epstein to get away with his crimes in 2008,” she said. “A committee run by elected officials with a commitment to transparency would ensure the full release of all the files. It would ensure that the lawful redactions of those files protected the victims and survivors, not powerful men and political allies.”
“But that’s not happening,” she continued. “Instead, you have compelled me to testify, fully aware that I have no knowledge that would assist your investigation, in order to distract attention from President Trump’s actions and to cover them up despite legitimate calls for answers.”
Last week, the former Secretary of State accused the Trump Administration of participating in a “cover-up” related to the Epstein files—a claim she doubled down on in her opening statement on Thursday.
“If this Committee is serious about learning the truth about Epstein’s trafficking crimes, it would not rely on press gaggles to get answers from our current president on his involvement; it would ask him directly under oath about the tens of thousands of times he shows up in the Epstein files,” she told lawmakers. “If the majority was serious, it would not waste time on fishing expeditions. There is too much that needs to be done. What is being held back? Who is being protected? And why the cover-up?”
Read more: Hillary Clinton Accuses Trump Administration of Epstein Files ‘Cover-Up’
Congress passed a law requiring that all government files related to the Epstein case be made public by Dec. 19, but the Trump Administration didn’t release all the documents by that deadline, sparking outrage from lawmakers and survivors of Epstein’s abuse. The Justice Department has also been criticized for redacting the names of several high-profile people appearing to have ties to Epstein in the released files while failing to conceal photos or potentially identifying information of some Epstein survivors.
NPR and The New York Times have reported this week that the Justice Department failed to include a number of documents connected with a woman who accused Trump of sexually assaulting her when she was a minor in its public database of files related to Epstein. Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, said in a statement following NPR’s report that Democrats on the panel “can confirm that the DOJ appears to have illegally withheld FBI interviews with this survivor who accused President Trump of heinous crimes.” Garcia said Oversight Democrats would open an investigation into the matter.
Trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and has said that he did not have any prior knowledge of Epstein’s crimes. White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told NPR and the Times that Trump has been “totally exonerated on anything relating to Epstein.”
Trump’s name and photo do appear a number of times in the files that have been made public. In one 2019 email sent to an author, which was shared by House Democrats in November, Epstein claimed that Trump “knew about the girls.” Among the documents released by the Justice Department in December is an FBI file from October 2020 that includes an allegation of rape against Trump. The file recounts a call made by an unnamed person to the FBI National Threat Operations Center. The caller alleged that a woman he had talked to said to him that “Donald J. Trump had raped her along with Jeffrey Epstein.” The Justice Department said in a statement accompanying the release of files in December that “some of these documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims made against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election.”
“To be clear: the claims are unfounded and false, and if they had a shred of credibility, they certainly would have been weaponized against President Trump already,” the Justice Department said at the time.
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