Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday accused a Republican-led House committee of using its Jeffrey Epstein enquiry to shield President Donald Trump, as she told lawmakers in closed-door testimony that she had never met the convicted sex offender and had no information about his crimes.
Hillary Clinton’s appearance before the US House Oversight Committee came after months of political sparring over access to Epstein-related records and testimony from prominent figures linked to the late offender’s network. Her husband, former US President Bill Clinton, is scheduled to testify separately.
In a statement released at her deposition in Chappaqua, New York, Hillary Clinton said she had already informed lawmakers in a sworn declaration that she possessed no relevant information about Epstein or his associate Ghislaine Maxwell.
“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,” she said.
“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.”
She lashed out at the committee’s Republican majority, alleging that enquiry was being used to divert scrutiny away from President Donald Trump’s ties to Epstein and from institutional failures that allowed the financier to avoid harsher punishment in 2008.
“This institutional failure is designed to protect one political party and one public official, rather than to seek truth and justice for the victims and survivors,” she said. “My heart breaks for the survivors. And I am furious on their behalf.”
HILLARY CLINTON CALLS FOR TRUMP’S TESTIMONY
She asked lawmakers to compel testimony from Trump and senior officials, saying a genuine investigation would “ask him directly under oath” about his connections to Epstein and fully release files related to the case with protections for victims.
But Trump was not the only figure she said should be questioned. State Clinton also named Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Attorney General Pam Bondi, demanding they should explain “why this administration is abandoning survivors and playing into the hands of traffickers”.
She added that investigators should “subpoena anyone who asked on which night there would be the ‘wildest party’ on Epstein’s island”.
Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer rejected claims the enquiry was partisan, saying Democrats also backed the Clintons’ testimony. He also said the panel was not accusing Hillary Clinton of any wrongdoing.
“No one is accusing at this moment the Clintons of any wrongdoing,” Comer said before the session. He said investigators were seeking information about any interactions she might have had with Epstein, his links to the Clintons’ charitable work and any relationship with Maxwell.
The hearings are part of a congressional review of Epstein’s associations with political and business elites after the US Justice Department released millions of pages of records related to the case in recent months.
Epstein died by suicide in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges. Maxwell was later convicted of helping him abuse underage girls.
With inputs from agencies
