A former secretary of state testified behind closed doors about her relationship with an accused sex trafficker. She blamed Republicans for not making their testimony public.
Hillary Clinton speaks to reporters after Jeffrey Epstein’s deposition
“I have never met Jeffrey Epstein,” Hillary Clinton told reporters after testifying before a House committee.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on February 26 that Republican lawmakers who called her to testify about sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein were not serious about the investigation and should have made her testimony public.
“They had a chance to do it in public and I wish they had done it in public. I think they made a bad decision by not doing it in public,” Clinton told reporters outside the Chappaqua Performing Arts Center, where she was called to testify in a closed-door hearing near her home in suburban New York.
Ms. Clinton was removed from office by House members after they issued subpoenas seeking information about Mr. Epstein. Mr. Epstein is a disgraced financier suspected of facilitating womanizing and worse against some of the world’s richest and most powerful people. Some of those caught up in the scandal, including former Obama Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, former British prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Microsoft founder Bill Gates, are facing serious consequences.
Mr. Clinton said in his opening statement to the committee that he said he knew nothing about Mr. Epstein’s criminal activities.
“I do not remember meeting Mr. Epstein, nor have I ever been on his plane or visited his island, home or office. I have nothing to add to this,” she said in a statement to the committee, according to a post on X.
Clinton also called on the committee to ask questions “directly under oath about what appears tens of thousands of times in the Epstein file” rather than relying on press conferences with President Donald Trump.
Former President Bill Clinton is one of the elite figures featured in the so-called Epstein Files. The file is a trove of millions of documents that the Justice Department has released under laws passed by Congress, and the signature of Mr. Trump, a former friend of Mr. Epstein, also features prominently in the file.
Bill Clinton is scheduled to testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on February 27th.
What did Hillary Clinton say about being called to testify?
Clinton accused House members of “going on the road” for information instead of questioning Justice Department officials who did not prosecute Epstein.
“If most people were serious, they wouldn’t waste their time on expedition fishing,” she says. “What is being blocked? Who is being protected? And why the cover-up?”
The former Democratic presidential candidate, who lost to Trump in the 2016 election, said the questioning she received “didn’t seem very productive.”
“It was very repetitive,” Clinton told reporters Thursday. “They literally asked the same questions over and over again, which didn’t seem very productive to me.”
Some of the questions were “completely off-topic,” she said.
“If they were literally going to carry out their responsibilities in the investigation, they could have had a more productive day,” Clinton said.
Clinton’s private testimony came after she demanded that she publicly question Rep. James Comer, the Kentucky Republican who is leading the investigation.
“If you want this fight, @RepJamesComer, let’s do it in public,” the former first lady said on social media. “You love to talk about transparency. There’s nothing more transparent than a hearing with the cameras on.”
Clinton said she asked for the video and transcript of testimony to be released as soon as possible.
What could Bill Clinton be asked?
Clinton’s husband, the former president, will testify before the House Oversight Committee on Friday.
The former first lady appeared upset when asked about her husband appearing “many times” in Epstein’s file, including one photo of the 42nd president relaxing in a hot tub. Another photo shows the former president in a pool with Epstein’s convicted accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.
Asked if she thought her husband was “100% ignorant” of Epstein’s crimes, the former first lady said, “Yes.”
“My relationship with Mr. Epstein ended several years before Mr. Epstein’s criminal activities became known,” Clinton said.
