NEW YORK, Feb 26 — Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a congressional committee yesterday that she did not remember ever meeting the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and had no information to share about his criminal activities.
"I do not recall ever encountering Mr Epstein. I never flew on his plane or visited his island, homes or offices," Clinton said in a statement, which she released as she delivered a closed-door deposition to the House of Representatives Oversight Committee in Chappaqua, New York.
Following a seven-hour appearance before the panel, Clinton told reporters she repeatedly was asked the same questions throughout the day, but that she also offered some suggestions on conducting the investigation. She did not detail those ideas.
Clinton said that late into the procedures "it got quite unusual because I started being asked about UFOs and a series of questions about Pizzagate, one of the most vile bogus conspiracy theories."
She was referring to false, widely disseminated musings in 2016 that a Washington, DC, pizzeria was a front for a child sex ring run by her and that New York City police had discovered a pedophilia ring linked to Democrats.
In her prepared testimony, Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, also accused the Republican-led panel of trying to shift focus away from Trump's ties to Epstein, who died by suicide in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges. She noted Trump's administration has "gutted" a State Department office focused on international sex trafficking.
Speaking to reporters after Clinton's testimony, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer dismissed the idea of having Trump appear before the panel.
"President Trump has answered hundreds if not thousands of questions from you all about Epstein and I think he's been very transparent in releasing the documents," said Comer, a Kentucky Republican.
Clinton and her husband, Democratic former President Bill Clinton, initially refused to testify before the committee, but relented when lawmakers moved to hold them in contempt of Congress.
Bill Clinton is scheduled to testify to the committee on Friday.
Bill Clinton flew on Epstein's plane several times in the early 2000s after he left office. He has denied wrongdoing and expressed regret for his association.
Epstein also visited the White House 17 times while Bill Clinton was in office.
The Justice Department sought to draw attention to photos of Bill Clinton in its document dump, but they also have revealed Epstein's ties to a long list of business and political leaders, including Lutnick and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
Overseas, they have prompted criminal investigations of Britain's Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the former Duke of York, and other prominent figures.
