SOURCE :- THE AGE NEWS
Washington: Former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton has told House members she had no knowledge of Jeffrey Epstein’s or Ghislaine Maxwell’s crimes, at the start of two days of depositions that will also include former president Bill Clinton.
“I had no idea about their criminal activities. I do not recall ever encountering Mr Epstein,” Hillary Clinton said in an opening statement she shared on social media on Thursday (US time).
The closed-door depositions in the Clintons’ hometown of Chappaqua, a typically quiet hamlet north of New York City, come after months of tense back-and-forth between the former high-powered Democratic couple and the Republican-controlled House oversight committee. It will be the first time that a former president has been forced to testify before Congress.
Yet the demand for a reckoning over Epstein’s abuse of underage girls has become a near-unstoppable force on Capitol Hill and beyond.
Proceedings were paused for 30 minutes after Republican congresswoman Lauren Boebert sent a photo of the proceedings to a conservative influencer. Benny Johnson, a right-wing YouTuber, posted a photo of Clinton at the deposition online and said Boebert had provided it.
The committee’s rules do not allow outside press or photographers to take photos of the proceedings.
Democrats said the incident underscored how important it was for there to be a clear public record of the deposition. Congressman Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the oversight panel, said Hillary Clinton, after the incident, repeated her longstanding demand that the deposition be made public, and Democrats called for a video and transcript of the complete proceedings to be released quickly.
US President Donald Trump, a Republican who has expressed regret that the Clintons are being forced to testify, bowed last year to pressure to release case files on Epstein, who died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial.
The Clintons, too, agreed to testify after their offers of sworn statements were rebuffed by the oversight panel and its chairman, congressman James Comer, threatened criminal contempt of Congress charges against them.
“We have a very clear record that we’ve been willing to talk about,” Hillary Clinton said in an interview with the BBC earlier this month. She added that her husband had flown with Epstein for charitable trips and that she did not recall meeting Epstein but had interacted with Maxwell, Epstein’s former girlfriend and confidant, at conferences hosted by the Clinton Foundation.
Maxwell, a British socialite, also attended the 2010 wedding of their daughter, Chelsea Clinton.
“We are more than happy to say what we know, which is very limited and totally unrelated to their behaviour or their crimes, and we want to do it in public,” Hillary Clinton said.
The former secretary of state told reporters after the deposition that she was confident her husband knew nothing about Epstein’s crimes. She added that the closed-door interview also touched on topics ranging from UFOs to the so-called PizzaGate conspiracy theory that took hold during the 2016 presidential campaign.
“It got quite unusual at the end.”
At the conclusion of the hearing, congresswoman Nancy Mace said Clinton had answered every question posed to her.
Bill Clinton, who is set to face questioning on Friday (US time), has emerged as a top target for Republicans amid the political struggle over who receives the most scrutiny for their ties to Epstein.
Several photos of the former president were included in the first tranche of Epstein files released by the Department of Justice in January, including a number of him with women whose faces were redacted. Clinton has not been accused of wrongdoing in his relationship with Epstein.
Comer has also pointed to Hillary Clinton’s work as secretary of state to address sex trafficking as another reason to insist on her deposition.
The committee’s investigation has sought to understand why the Department of Justice under previous presidential administrations did not seek further charges against Epstein following a 2008 arrangement in which he pleaded guilty to state charges in Florida for soliciting prostitution from an underage girl but avoided federal charges.
Hillary Clinton accused Comer of running a one-sided investigation that has failed to hold Trump and other Republican officials to account.
“This institutional failure is designed to protect one political party and one public official,” she said.
Conspiracy theories, especially on the right, have swirled for years around the Clintons and their connections to Epstein and Maxwell, who argues she was wrongfully convicted. Republicans have long wanted to press the Clintons for answers.
“I mean if you’re the wife of Bill Clinton, aren’t you going to have some questions about your husband’s activities?” said congressman Scott Perry, a member of the House oversight committee.
“We only go where the facts take us. We didn’t put the president and the secretary in this position. They put themselves in it.”
Comer has pledged lengthy days of questioning for both Clintons.
“We have a lot of questions, and the purpose of the whole investigation is to try to understand many things about Epstein,” he told reporters outside the convention centre where the depositions were being held.
“How did he accumulate so much wealth? How was he able to surround himself with some of the most powerful men in the world?”
Comer described the deposition as a bipartisan effort and said that it was “very possible” the committee would question Trump’s Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who was Epstein’s neighbour and had several interactions with him.
Under questioning from Democrats earlier this month, Lutnick acknowledged that he had met with Epstein twice after the late financier’s 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from a child, reversing his previous claim that he had cut ties with him after 2005.
Democrats, now being led by a new generation of politicians, have prioritised transparency around Epstein over defending the former leaders of their party.
Let’s get President Trump in front of our committee to answer the questions that are being asked across this country from survivors.
Congressman Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the Oversight panel.
Several Democratic lawmakers joined with Republicans on the oversight panel to advance the contempt of Congress charges against the Clintons last month. Several said they had no relationship with the Clintons and owed no loyalty to them.
Garcia said both Republican and Democratic administrations “have failed survivors in not getting more information out to the public”.
Garcia also called on Trump to testify in the investigation. He argued that Bill Clinton’s appearance set a precedent that should apply to Trump as well.
“Let’s get President Trump in front of our committee to answer the questions that are being asked across this country from survivors,” Garcia said.
He also said he wanted to ask about Epstein’s possible ties to foreign governments.
Democrats are also coming off an effort this week to confront Trump about his administration’s handling of the Epstein files by taking women who survived Epstein’s abuse as their guests to Trump’s State of the Union address.
Even senior Democrats, such as former speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, said it was appropriate for the committee to interview anyone, including the former president, who was connected to Epstein.
“We want to hear from everyone,” Pelosi said, adding that she did not see why Hillary Clinton was being interviewed and that it was important to “believe survivors.”
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said his caucus in the coming days would also review unredacted versions of the Epstein case files at a Department of Justice office. Schumer, who demanded that the department release all of the files and preserve all materials, said they will “pull on every thread” until they “reveal this massive cover-up.”
AP
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