Hillary Clinton: I had no idea about Jeffrey Epstein’s criminal activities

Hillary Clinton has told US legislators 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,” the former US secretary of state and ex-first lady said in an opening statement she shared on social media.

The closed-door depositions to legislators from the House of Representatives, being held in the Clintons’ home town of Chappaqua in upstate New York, 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 give evidence before Congress.

The demand for a reckoning over Epstein’s abuse of under-age girls has become a near-unstoppable force on Capitol Hill and beyond.

President Donald Trump, a Republican who has expressed regret that the Clintons are being forced to give evidence, bowed last year to pressure to release case files on Epstein, who killed himself in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial.

The Clintons agreed to give evidence after their offers of sworn statements were rebuffed by the Oversight panel and its chairman 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,” Ms Clinton said.

Bill Clinton, however, 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.

Mr Clinton has not been accused of wrongdoing in his relationship with Epstein.

Mr 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.

Yet 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.

Mr Comer 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?”

Mr Comer described the deposition as a bipartisan effort and said on Thursday 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, Mr 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.

Several Democratic legislators 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.

Representative Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the Oversight panel, also called on Mr Trump to give evidence in the investigation.

He argued that Bill Clinton’s appearance sets a precedent that should apply to Mr 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,” Mr Garcia said.

Mr Comer previously said that the committee cannot depose Mr Trump because he is a sitting president.

Still, Democrats are also coming off an effort this week to confront Mr Trump about his administration’s handling of the Epstein files by taking women who survived Epstein’s abuse as their guests to Mr 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,” Ms Pelosi said, adding that she did not see why Hillary Clinton was being interviewed and that it was important to “believe survivors”.