Hillary Clinton faces off with House lawmakers in Epstein probe

By Annie Grayer, MJ Lee, CNN

(CNN) — Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton remained defiant that she has no information regarding the criminal activities of the late Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell.

“Like every decent person, I have been horrified by what we have learned about their crimes,” Clinton said of Epstein and Maxwell in her opening remarks Thursday to House lawmakers. “It’s unfathomable that Mr. Epstein initially got a slap on the wrist in 2008, which allowed him to continue his predatory practices for another decade.”

Clinton is sitting for a deposition in New York, near where she lives with former President Bill Clinton, as part of the House Oversight Committee’s investigation into Epstein. The interview, underway behind closed doors, is the culmination of a vigorous fight by both Clinton and her husband over testifying in what they denounced as a Republican plot against them.

Clinton has said she cannot recall ever meeting Epstein and only interacted with his former associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, a handful of times.

“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,” Clinton said in the remarks, which she posted publicly. “I had no idea about their criminal activities. 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.”

Republicans, however, insist her testimony is vital to their probe, while Democrats have argued their colleagues’ fixation on the former secretary of state is purely political.

The Clintons only agreed to comply with their subpoenas for closed-door depositions after the House had moved toward a bipartisan vote to hold them in criminal contempt of Congress for refusing to appear as scheduled.

The former secretary of state was accompanied by her attorneys, who have been working through painstaking details of what areas could be covered during questioning.

The location for the depositions, the Clintons’ hometown of Chappaqua, was negotiated between Kendall and Rep. James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, in hopes of avoiding the indignity and precedent-setting move of summoning a former president to Capitol Hill for questioning.

The former first lady arrived out of direct sight of the gaggle of reporters who had gathered in front of the Chappaqua Performing Arts Center. But two images of Clinton flanked by her attorneys surfaced on social media during the proceeding – prompting cries of lawmakers running afoul House rules and a brief pause in the deposition.

The Clintons have repeatedly called for their closed-door depositions to be public, which Comer declined – a point the former secretary of state criticized to open the interview.

“You have held zero public hearings, refused to allow the media to attend them, including today, despite espousing the need for transparency on dozens of occasions,” she said.

To prepare for Thursday’s deposition – and the former president’s set for a day later, the Clintons in recent days have hunkered down to not only refresh their memories about the Epstein years, but to prepare to counter potentially hostile congressional investigators. Their separate appearances speak to the differences in information the two could offer to the committee.

“We worked for six months to get the Clintons to come in and then they acted like they were going to come in and then they didn’t show up. And obviously we moved to hold the Clintons in contempt. And I think one thing that surprised the Clintons, they assumed that Democrats on the committee would vote in a partisan manner and not vote to hold the Clintons in contempt, and what they learned was a majority of Democrats on the committee either voted to hold the Clintons to contempt or voted present,” Comer said ahead of the interview Thursday.

“I think that’s a statement that this investigation is serious. It is a bipartisan investigation. The American people have a lot of questions. To my knowledge, the Clintons haven’t answered very many if any questions about their knowledge or involvement with Epstein and Maxwell,” he added.

The Clintons and members of the House Oversight Committee have agreed to five topic areas for the depositions, a person familiar with the agreement told CNN. They are:

• alleged mismanagement of the federal government’s investigation into Epstein and Maxwell;
• the circumstances and subsequent investigations of Epstein’s 2019 death;
• the ways the federal government could effectively combat sex-trafficking rings;
• how Epstein and Maxwell sought to curry favor to protect their illegal activities;
• and potential violations of ethics rules related to elected officials.

Initially, the Clintons wanted their subpoenas for depositions to be waived for sworn statements under oath, an accommodation that Comer granted to several other witnesses in the investigation. But the Oversight Committee chairman wanted them to appear on his terms.

Clinton attorneys and the Republican-led panel negotiated behind the scenes for months, through email exchanges, letters and phone calls to try and find an off-ramp.

The Clintons argued that they were being unfairly targeted and have criticized Republicans for not holding other individuals like President Donald Trump, whose name appears countless times in the Epstein files, to the same standard.

“If this Committee is serious about learning the truth about Epstein’s trafficking crimes, it would not rely on press gaggles to get answers from our current president on his involvement; it would ask him directly under oath about the tens of thousands of times he shows up in the Epstein files,” Clinton said in her prepared remarks to lawmakers. “What is being held back? Who is being protected? And why the cover-up?”

Comer has argued that the investigation is bipartisan and pointed to the depositions of former Republican Attorney General Bill Barr and former US Attorney Alex Acosta who granted Epstein his sweetheart plea deal in 2008. Comer added that he is open to bringing in Trump’s Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, for questioning given his ties to Epstein as well.

“It is a bipartisan investigation. The American people have a lot of questions. To my knowledge, the Clintons haven’t answered very many if any questions about their knowledge or involvement with Epstein and Maxwell,” the Kentucky Republican said.

When the Clintons did not appear for their scheduled depositions in January, Comer scheduled a vote to hold the pair in criminal contempt.

Triple the number of Democrats ultimately voted to hold the former president in contempt compared to the former first lady, but the bipartisan votes took House Democratic leadership by surprise.

Bill Clinton has never been accused by law enforcement of any wrongdoing related to Epstein, and a spokesperson has repeatedly said he cut ties before Epstein’s arrest on federal charges in 2019 and was unaware of any crimes.

A CNN review showed the former president traveled on Epstein’s private plane at least 16 times, and he was pictured in Epstein case files released by the Justice Department with women in a jacuzzi, as well as with Maxwell.

Survivors of Epstein’s abuse and lawyers representing them told CNN that they believe it is important for the Clintons, and especially the former president, to testify. In interviews, they stressed that the presence of an individual in the Epstein files and their cooperation with Congress does not indicate wrongdoing.

The top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, Rep. Robert Garcia, said he wants to speak to anyone who has knowledge of Epstein’s crimes, regardless of party.

“We will talk to any single person, whether that is a Democrat, a Republican, how much wealth they have, how powerful their position is, we want to talk to anyone so we’re happy to be here and we’re glad both Secretary Clinton and former President Clinton are willing to talk to this committee,” he told reporters.

But Democratic Rep. James Walkinshaw expressed concern that Republicans only wanted to speak with Clinton for political reasons.

“My fear is we are here today as part of a political exercise, part of a long running fever-dream where Republicans want to lock up Secretary Clinton,” Walkinshaw said. “I wanted to come today to ensure that this is a serious exercise, a serious investigation, and not a political, partisan one.”

In the current political environment, victims of Epstein hold far more sway with many Democratic lawmakers than a sense of loyalty to the Clintons. More than 40 current House Democrats were born in 1980 or later, giving them different memories of Bill Clinton’s presidency than party leaders who were in Washington when he ended 12 years of Republican control of the White House.

This story has been updated with additional developments.

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CNN’s Jeff Zeleny contributed to this report.