Hillary Clinton to testify today over Jeffrey Epstein to House Oversight Committee as Bill appears tomorrow
Former first lady and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is set to testify Thursday to the House Oversight Committee about the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, while her husband, former President Bill Clinton, is scheduled to be questioned by lawmakers on Friday.
The Republican-led committee is traveling to the sleepy hamlet of Chappaqua to question the Clintons behind closed doors at their New York home after images of Bill Clinton were included in a tranche of documents dropped by the Justice Department, which released the files to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
The Clintons, who have not been accused of any crimes in connection with Epstein and denied wrongdoing, have been locked in a tense back-and-forth with the committee for months.
They had previously resisted subpoenas to compel their testimony, labeling efforts from the GOP-controlled House Oversight Committee “invalid and legally unenforceable” in a searing letter that also condemned Donald Trump’s administration and the alleged failures of a Republican-dominated Congress to hold it accountable.
But, with the threat of a House vote to hold them in contempt of Congress, the couple agreed to be questioned behind closed doors.
They were reported to be “hunkering down” ahead of the grilling this week.
Republican Rep. James Comer, chair of the House Oversight Committee, said the panel would “press for the answers” in the depositions.
“Bill and Hillary Clinton have never answered a single question about their well-documented ties to Jeffrey Epstein & Ghislaine Maxwell,” Comer said Thursday in a post on X. “That ends today. The House Oversight Committee will press for the answers survivors and the American people deserve.”
Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee defeated by Trump, said she never met Epstein but did encounter Maxwell “on a few occasions.”
In an interview with the BBC last week, Hillary Clinton claimed this week that the depositions were an attempt to “divert attention” from Trump.
“Other witnesses were asked to testify,” she said. “They gave written statements under oath. We offered that. Why do they want to pull us into this? To divert attention from President Trump. This is not complicated.”
“We have nothing to hide,” she added. “We have called for the full release of these [Epstein] files repeatedly. We think sunlight is the best disinfectant.”
The depositions with the former president and former secretary of state will be filmed, and Republicans are hoping to release footage of the interviews in the following days, according to CNN.
Members of the panel questioning the Clintons this week plan to speak to reporters at the end of each session, Politico reports.
