Hillary Clinton instructed lawmakers throughout a deposition Thursday their subpoena for her testimony about Jeffrey Epstein is a distraction from President Donald Trump’s relationship with the moneyman and intercourse predator.
In a gap assertion she posted on-line, Clinton mentioned she had no details about Epstein’s crimes and didn’t recall ever assembly him.
Clinton accused Republicans of compelling her testimony “fully aware that I have no knowledge that would assist your investigation, in order to distract from President Trump’s actions and to cover them up despite legitimate calls for answers.”
Like former President Bill Clinton, Trump socialized with Epstein, and his identify seems all through the Justice Department’s recordsdata. This week, Democrats have pointed to proof that some FBI recordsdata doubtlessly recounting an accusation towards Trump look like lacking from a public database, opposite to a disclosure legislation.
Despite not having her personal direct connection to Epstein, Clinton confronted hours of questions from members of the House Oversight Committee. She described the questioning as repetitious, and, at instances, ridiculous.
“I don’t know how many times I had to say I did not know Jeffrey Epstein. I never went to his island, I never went to his home, I never went to his offices,” Clinton instructed reporters.
“It then got, at the end, quite unusual, because I started being asked about UFOs and a series of questions about ‘Pizzagate,’ one of the most vile, bogus conspiracy theories that was propagated on the internet, that was serving as the basis of a member’s questions to me,” Clinton mentioned.
“Pizzagate,” a predecessor of the larger QAnon conspiracy idea, posited that prime Democratic officers ran a baby intercourse trafficking ring out of a pizza restaurant in Northwest Washington ― imaginary crimes with some similarities to the real-life crimes perpetrated by Epstein.
David Dee Delgado by way of Getty Images
Oversight Committee lawmakers traveled to New York for depositions on Thursday and Friday with each Clintons. Committee chair James Comer (R-Ky.) mentioned on the outset he knew Hillary Clinton’s deposition can be lengthy and that he anticipated her husband’s to be “even longer.”
After the listening to, Comer mentioned Clinton, a former first girl, U.S. senator and secretary of state, answered most of lawmakers’ questions and that the assembly was “productive.” He mentioned a video of the interview might be launched inside 24 hours.
The deposition paused at one level within the afternoon after committee member Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) despatched photographs to right-wing influencer Benny Johnson of Clinton testifying. Boebert did this opposite to committee guidelines. It was bizarre — no different lawmaker has ever leaked an image from a closed deposition lately.
“We had a bit of a challenge in the beginning, because we agreed upon rules based on the fact it was going to be a closed hearing at their demand, and one of the members violated that rule, which was very upsetting,” Clinton mentioned.
The Clintons have mentioned they would favor to testify in public, however Comer insisted on the closed-door deposition, saying the committee might maintain a public listening to later. But Clinton mentioned Thursday she didn’t need to undergo all of it once more.
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) instructed reporters Clinton had answered the committee’s questions and demonstrated she had no relationship with Epstein or data of his crimes. He mentioned the committee ought to as a substitute deal with the Trump administration withholding FBI recordsdata that may element sexual misconduct by Trump towards a minor within the early Nineteen Eighties.
“These are files that accuse the President of the United States about serious, serious accusations around sexual abuse, and the fact that they’re not in the files that have been apparently either removed or discarded, is incredibly concerning, and so we’re calling on Attorney General Pam Bondi to immediately release those files,” Garcia mentioned.
The Justice Department mentioned Wednesday it was “currently reviewing” whether or not it had extra paperwork to launch, and Comer mentioned the committee’s Republicans had been additionally trying into it.
Garcia additionally mentioned the subpoenas to the Clintons “set a new precedent about talking to presidents and former presidents” and that Republicans ought to demand that Trump testify.
The Oversight Committee accepted subpoenas for the Clintons on the similar time it accepted a subpoena demanding the Trump administration fork over its investigative recordsdata on Epstein, who died in 2019 whereas dealing with federal prices for intercourse trafficking minors.
The votes had been bipartisan, and when the Clintons initially resisted sitting for depositions, Democrats joined Republicans in advancing a contempt decision that would have resulted in legal prices.
“We’re not accusing Hillary Clinton of wrongdoing,” Comer mentioned earlier than the listening to. “We know that Jeffrey Epstein said many times in emails that he was the first person to raise money for the Clinton Initiative, the Clinton Foundation, that he solicited money at some of his properties for the Clinton Foundation.”
One factor Comer needed to know, he mentioned, was why Maxwell had been a visitor at Chelsea Clinton’s marriage ceremony in 2010. After the deposition, a reporter put the query to the previous first girl.
“She came as the plus one, the guest of someone who was invited,” Clinton mentioned. And she left it at that.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/hillary-clinton-deposition-epstein-comer_n_69a07311e4b078861704a12d