By Amofokhai Williams
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appeared before the House Oversight Committee on Thursday in a closed-door deposition as part of the ongoing congressional investigation into the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
She emphatically stated she had no information about Epstein criminal activities and does not recall ever meeting him personally.
The testimony, conducted in Chappaqua, New York, near Clinton’s residence, marked the first of two high-profile depositions involving the Clintons.
Former President Bill Clinton is scheduled to testify tomorrow, Friday, February 27. The appearances follow months of subpoenas, legal wrangling, and accusations from committee Republicans, led by Chair James Comer (R-Ky.), that the Clintons were withholding information or resisting oversight.
The couple had initially challenged the subpoenas as politically motivated but ultimately agreed to appear, framing their cooperation as a willingness to clarify limited, non-incriminating associations.
In an opening statement shared publicly on social media ahead of the session, Hillary Clinton said: “I had no idea about their criminal activities. I do not recall ever encountering Mr. Epstein.” She acknowledged limited interactions with Epstein’s associate Ghislaine Maxwell, convicted in 2021 for her role in Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation, describing them as occurring “many years ago” at Clinton Foundation conferences and noting Maxwell’s attendance at daughter Chelsea Clinton’s 2010 wedding.
Clinton reiterated that any connections were unrelated to Epstein’s crimes and expressed support for public testimony to counter what she called partisan speculation.
A recent analysis by Wellesley College’s student newspaper, reviewing over 800 references to Hillary Clinton in the Epstein files released by the Department of Justice, found that less than 1% documented verified interactions with Epstein or his affiliates.
The majority (about 34%) involved media clippings or mentions tied to her 2016 presidential campaign. Two notable instances included Maxwell at Chelsea’s wedding and a screenshot of a 2018 Daily Mail article showing the Clintons dining with Harvey Weinstein in December 2016, weeks after Clinton’s election loss and before Weinstein’s 2017 sexual misconduct allegations became public.
At the time, Weinstein was a prominent Democratic donor and fundraiser; he was later convicted in multiple trials related to rape and sexual assault.
The deposition occurs amid broader scrutiny of Epstein’s network, fueled by the release of millions of pages of documents in recent years, including flight logs showing Bill Clinton’s multiple travels on Epstein’s plane for charitable purposes.
Republicans on the committee argue the testimony is essential to understanding Epstein’s influence and potential enablers, while Democrats and the Clintons have dismissed it as a partisan fishing expedition unrelated to new evidence of wrongdoing.
Clinton’s testimony also touches on longstanding political sensitivities, including her past condemnations of Weinstein after his 2017 exposure, she described the allegations as “shocked and appalled” and called for zero tolerance of such behaviour, despite earlier associations through fundraising.
No evidence in the files or public record suggests Hillary Clinton had any involvement in Epstein’s or Weinstein’s crimes.
