Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s closed-door deposition Thursday before the House Oversight Committee devolved into conspiracy theories, aliens and — according to Clinton — countless versions of the same question, with the same answer.
“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 homes, I never went to his offices,” the onetime Democratic nominee for president said after emerging from an arts center in her hometown of Chappaqua, New York, where the Republican-led committee questioned her for hours.
Toward the end, “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 said, without identifying the member of Congress who posed those questions.
Clinton did acknowledge that Epstein’s co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, was a “casual acquaintance” who attended her daughter Chelsea’s 2010 wedding as a plus-one.
And Republicans, who forced the deposition under threat of holding Clinton in contempt, may have gotten something they wanted even more: fodder for challenging her husband, former President Bill Clinton.
Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., called the session “productive” and said Clinton answered “most of our questions,” pointedly noting that she frequently demurred when asked about connections between her husband, Epstein and Maxwell.
“The number of times that she said, ‘I don’t know, you’ll have to ask my husband,’ was, was more than a dozen,” Comer said.
Comer and his Republican colleagues will get their chance to do exactly that Friday when Bill Clinton sits for his own historic deposition in the same location.
Neither the former first lady nor the former president has been accused of wrongdoing.
Clinton accused the Republican-led committee of seeking her out in an effort to cover for President Donald Trump, whose past friendship with Epstein has been subject to intense scrutiny.
“Instead, you have compelled me to testify, fully aware that I have no knowledge that would assist your investigation, in order to distract attention from President Trump’s actions and to cover them up despite legitimate calls for answers,” Clinton said in her opening statement, adding: “What is being held back? Who is being protected? And why the cover-up?”
Bill Clinton appears in multiple documents in the Epstein files, including in several photos with the convicted sex offender, women whose identities were obscured and prominent celebrities. The documents show that Maxwell was involved in kicking off the Clinton Global Initiative years before Epstein was indicted for sex crimes in Florida in 2006. The former president is not accused of and has denied wrongdoing.
Bill Clinton’s deposition Friday will mark the first time a former president is compelled to testify in a congressional investigation under subpoena. Ranking member Robert Garcia, D-Calif., pointed to that Thursday, saying Trump should be next.
“This committee has now set a new precedent about talking to presidents and former presidents,” Garcia said. “And we’re demanding immediately that we ask President Trump to testify in front of our committee and be deposed in front of Oversight Republicans and Democrats, and that should happen immediately.”
Comer subpoenaed the Clintons in August. The former first couple initially declined to comply, but relented in early February after the committee voted to advance contempt resolutions against them.
Angel Ureña, the former president’s spokesperson, said at the time that the Clintons “negotiated in good faith” with the committee, but Comer did not.
The Clintons have said their testimony should be conducted in public, but Comer insisted on private depositions.
Thursday’s deposition was disrupted for about 30 minutes after Rep. Lauren Boebert took photos of Clinton testifying and shared them with a right-wing social media personality. The Colorado Republican told reporters she took the photos, saying it was not in violation of the rules for the deposition and she was not reprimanded.
The depositions are taking place in Chappaqua, New York, where the Clintons live, and the testimony will be filmed and transcribed. Comer said the committee would release those recordings, as it did with last week’s deposition of retail magnate Les Wexner.
Comer said earlier this week he would be open to a public hearing with the Clintons later, if they want that.
Hillary Clinton said she does not.
“They had a chance to do it in public,” she said, “and I wish they had.”
Mychael Schnell contributed reporting.
Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.
Ali Vitali is MS NOW's senior congressional correspondent and the host of "Way Too Early." She is the author of "Electable: Why America Hasn’t Put a Woman in the White House … Yet."
Syedah Asghar
Syedah Asghar covers Congress for MSNBC.