Hillary Clinton Called Before Congress Over Epstein Case, Demands Trump Testify

Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testified before a congressional committee on Thursday 26 February that she possessed no new information regarding Jeffrey Epstein, an businessman convicted of sexual crimes, and that she did not recall ever meeting him.

In her opening statement, Clinton stated that the panel’s subpoena was based on the assumption that she held information related to investigations into Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s criminal activities. “Let me be absolutely clear,” she said. “I do not possess that information.”

The Republican-led US Congressional Oversight Committee examined Clinton privately at her residence in Chappaqua, New York, where she lives with her husband, former US President Bill Clinton.

“I do not recall ever meeting Epstein. I never flew on his plane or visited his island, home, or office,” Hillary stated during her deposition.

After seven hours of examination, Clinton told reporters that she was repeatedly asked the same questions, though she also provided several suggestions regarding how the investigation should be conducted. She did not elaborate on these proposals.

Prior to the hearing, Committee Chairman James Comer stated to journalists that he planned to release video and transcript recordings following approval. “The purpose of this entire investigation is to understand many things about Epstein,” Comer said, adding that many questions had been raised and his committee was unsatisfied with responses received.

Clinton expressed confidence that her husband was unaware of Epstein’s crimes. Former President Bill Clinton was scheduled to undergo a similar deposition on Friday 27 February. Bill Clinton also denied wrongdoing and expressed regret over his closeness to Epstein. On Thursday, Hillary stated her conviction that Bill Clinton did not know of Epstein’s crimes when they were acquainted and interacting with him.

She told reporters that Bill Clinton would inform the committee that “the majority” of people who had interacted with Epstein before his 2008 guilty plea were also “unaware” of his sex-trafficking practices. Hillary added that this is what her husband would convey in his testimony on Friday.

Hillary also stated that her husband’s interactions with Epstein had ended years before the criminal activities came to public light. When asked whether she was confident her husband knew nothing of abuse of minors or other crimes, Hillary answered affirmatively.

Notably, Clinton used her forced deposition to turn the tables and demand President Donald Trump testify regarding his connections to the sex offender. “If this committee is serious about learning the truth about Epstein’s human-trafficking crimes, then they must call Trump to testify under oath and ask him why his name appears tens of thousands of times in the Epstein documents,” she stated, accusing the committee of attempting to “protect one public official.”

A Democratic committee member, Robert Garcia, also called for Trump to testify “to answer questions posed by survivors across the nation.”

In her statement, Clinton accused the Republican-led committee of attempting to deflect public attention from Donald Trump’s relationship with Epstein. Epstein died by suicide in prison in 2019 whilst awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.

Clinton also highlighted that the Trump administration had “weakened” the department handling international human-trafficking issues at the US State Department.

Nevertheless, Comer declined to call Trump to testify. “President Trump has answered hundreds, even thousands of questions from all of you about Epstein and I believe he has been very transparent in releasing those documents,” Comer, a Republican from Kentucky, said.

President Trump was known to socialise frequently with Epstein during the 1990s through early 2000s, before Epstein’s 2008 conviction for prostitution involving minors. Comer stated that evidence gathered by the panel showed no Trump involvement.

Bill Clinton, by contrast, was known to have flown several times on Epstein’s plane in the early 2000s after leaving the presidency. He has denied any wrongdoing.

According to Comer, Epstein visited the White House 17 times whilst Clinton was president.

The released Epstein documents not only contained photographs of Bill Clinton but also revealed Epstein’s connections to numerous business and political figures, including Howard Lutnick and Tesla chief executive Elon Musk.