Hillary Clinton tells committee: ‘I had no idea about Jeffrey Epstein’s criminal activities’
“I had no idea about their criminal activities. I do not recall ever encountering Mr Epstein,” the former US secretary of state and ex-first lady said in an opening statement she shared on social media.The closed-door depositions to legislators from the House of Representatives, being held in the Clintons’ home town of Chappaqua in upstate New York, come after months of tense back-and-forth between the former high-powered Democratic couple and the Republican-controlled House Oversight Committee.We need your consent to load this Social Media content. We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity.Please review your details and accept them to load the contentIt will be the first time that a former president has been forced to give evidence before Congress.The demand for a reckoning over Epstein’s abuse of under-age girls has become a near-unstoppable force on Capitol Hill and beyond.President Donald Trump, a Republican who has expressed regret that the Clintons are being forced to give evidence, bowed last year to pressure to release case files on Epstein, who killed himself in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial.The Clintons agreed to give evidence after their offers of sworn statements were rebuffed by the Oversight panel and its chairman James Comer threatened criminal contempt of Congress charges against them.“We have a very clear record that we’ve been willing to talk about,” Ms Clinton said in an interview with the BBC earlier this month.She added that her husband had flown with Epstein for charitable trips and that she did not recall meeting Epstein but had interacted with Maxwell, Epstein’s former girlfriend and confidante, at conferences hosted by the Clinton Foundation.Maxwell, a British socialite, also attended the 2010 wedding of their daughter, Chelsea Clinton.“We are more than happy to say what we know, which is very limited and totally unrelated to their behaviour or their crimes, and we want to do it in public,” Ms Clinton said.Mr Clinton, however, has emerged as a top target for Republicans amid the political struggle over who receives the most scrutiny for their ties to Epstein.Several photos of the former president were included in the first tranche of Epstein files released by the Department of Justice in January, including a number of him with women whose faces were redacted.Mr Clinton has not been accused of wrongdoing in his relationship with Epstein.Mr Comer has also pointed to Ms Clinton’s work as secretary of state to address sex trafficking as another reason to insist on her deposition.A motorcade carrying former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton arrives at the Chappaqua Performing Arts Centre. Photo: APThe committee’s investigation has sought to understand why the Department of Justice under previous presidential administrations did not seek further charges against Epstein following a 2008 arrangement in which he pleaded guilty to state charges in Florida for soliciting prostitution from an under-age girl but avoided federal charges.Yet conspiracy theories, especially on the right, have swirled for years around the Clintons and their connections to Epstein and Maxwell, who argues she was wrongfully convicted.Republicans have long wanted to press the Clintons for answers.“I mean if you’re the wife of Bill Clinton, aren’t you going to have some questions about your husband’s activities?” said representative Scott Perry, a member of the House Oversight Committee.“We only go where the facts take us. We didn’t put the president and the secretary in this position. They put themselves in it.”Democrats, now being led by a new generation of politicians, have prioritised transparency around Epstein over defending the former leaders of their party.Representative Robert Garcia speaks outside the Chappaqua Performing Arts Centre before the arrival of Hillary Clinton. Photo: APSeveral Democratic legislators joined with Republicans on the oversight panel to advance the contempt of Congress charges against the Clintons last month.Several said they had no relationship with the Clintons and owed no loyalty to them.Representative Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the oversight panel, said that both Republican and Democratic administrations “have failed survivors in not getting more information out to the public”.He also said he wanted to ask about Epstein’s possible ties to foreign governments.Democrats are also coming off an effort this week to confront Mr Trump about his administration’s handling of the Epstein files by taking women who survived Epstein’s abuse as their guests to Mr Trump’s State of the Union address.Even senior Democrats, such as former speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, said it was appropriate for the committee to interview anyone, including the former president, who was connected to Epstein.“We want to hear from everyone,” Ms Pelosi said, adding that she did not see why Ms Clinton was being interviewed and that it was important to “believe survivors”.
