(FILES) Former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and former US President Bill Clinton arrive on the West Front of the US Capitol on January 20, 2017 in Washington, DC, before the swearing-in ceremony of US President-elect Donald Trump. Former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton is to testify behind closed doors on February 26, 2026, before a congressional committee investigating the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell. Former president Bill Clinton is scheduled to answer questions the following day from the Republican-led House Oversight Committee about his relations with Epstein, who died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial. (Photo by Win McNamee / POOL / AFP)
Hillary Clinton used her forced appearance on Thursday before a Republican-led panel looking into Jeffrey Epstein to go on the offensive and demand President Donald Trump testify about his own links to the sex offender.
Clinton told the Congressional committee that she didn’t know anything about Epstein’s misdeeds, had never seen him, had never been to his island, or flown on his plane. She said the committee was trying to “protect one public official”—Trump, according to AFP.
James Comer, the head of the committee that will also question former president Bill Clinton on Friday, said, “The purpose of the whole investigation is to try to understand many things about Epstein,” the dead convicted sex offender.
Clinton told the panel, “If this committee really wants to find out the truth about Epstein’s trafficking crimes, it should ask Trump directly under oath about the tens of thousands of times he shows up in the Epstein files.”
Robert Garcia, the committee’s senior Democrat, also invited Trump to testify “to answer the questions that survivors are asking all over the country.”
“That should happen right away,” he remarked later.
Suhas Subramanyam, a member of the Democratic committee, said that the “missing FBI files” that were not included in the Epstein materials revelations contain “serious accusations around sexual abuse” against Trump.
The House Oversight Committee, which is run by Republicans, is looking into those who were connected to Epstein, who died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while waiting for his trial.
The Clintons first said no to subpoenas that told them to testify in the panel’s investigation, but they changed their minds after House Republicans threatened to punish them in contempt of Congress.
Hillary Clinton told the panel in her opening statement that it “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 plain as I can. No, I don’t.
Epstein’s Network
After a picture of Clinton in the deposition was leaked online, the hearing was put on hold for a short period, which seemed to break the closed-door agreement.
Subramanyam stated, “What is not acceptable is oversight Republicans breaking their own committee rules by releasing photos.”
Democrats claim that the inquiry is being used as a weapon against Trump’s political opponents instead than for real scrutiny.
The current revelation of federal data about Epstein includes a lot of information about Trump and Bill Clinton, both 79. They both say they cut relations with the financier before he was convicted of being a sex offender in Florida in 2008.
Just being mentioned in the files isn’t enough to prove that someone did something wrong.
The Clintons wanted their depositions to be public, but the committee insisted on questioning them in private. Bill Clinton dubbed this a “kangaroo court.”
The Clintons live in Chappaqua, New York, where the depositions are taking place.
Many reporters have come to the rich village, and the Secret Service put up metal barriers around the arts facility where the deposition is taking place.
A placard that said “Comer depose Trump” was held up by an old couple.
Bernie Hunt, 74, who lives in the area, said, “Congress is looking into it, and they have the right to do so.”
Jim Levine, 34, who lives close to Chappaqua, stated, “What a privilege” that the Clintons were removed from power near their house. “Put her in jail, that’s what I say.”
Bill Clinton has indicated that he flew on Epstein’s jet multiple times in the early 2000s for humanitarian work for the Clinton Foundation, but he has never been to Epstein’s private Caribbean island.
Maxwell, 64, who helped Epstein, is serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking.
Earlier this month, she testified before the House Oversight Committee via video link but refused to answer questions, saying she had the right not to incriminate herself under the Fifth Amendment.
Epstein built up a network of powerful corporate leaders, politicians, celebrities, and scholars.
The revelation of the Epstein case files has had effects all around the world. For example, former Prince Andrew and Peter Mandelson, the former ambassador to the US, were both arrested in Britain.
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