Hillary Clinton Tells House ‘I Do Not Recall Ever Encountering’ Jeffrey Epstein
Twice-failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Thursday accused the GOP-led House Oversight Committee of using her to “distract” from President Donald Trump during her high-stakes testimony in Congress’s investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.
“A committee endeavoring to stop human trafficking would seek to understand what specific steps are needed to fix a system that allowed Epstein to get away with his crimes in 2008,” she is telling the panel, according to her opening remarks.
“But that’s not happening. 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,” she added.
Clinton is telling lawmakers, “As I stated in my sworn declaration on January 13, I had no idea about their criminal activities.”
“I do not recall ever encountering Mr. Epstein. I never flew on his plane or visited his island homes or offices. I have nothing to add to that,” her remarks state.
“Like every decent person, I have been horrified by what we have learned about their crimes. It’s unfathomable that Mr. Epstein initially got a slap on the wrist in 2008, which allowed him to continue his predatory practices for another decade.”
The House Oversight Committee is officially starting its deposition on Thursday morning after months of back-and-forth.
“No one’s accusing, at this moment, the Clintons of any wrongdoing. They’re going to have due process,” Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., told reporters shortly before it began. “But we have a lot of questions, and the purpose of the whole investigation is to try to understand many things about Epstein.
Hillary Clinton’s deposition is the day before her husband, former President Bill Clinton, will also testify before the panel.
“Today will be a long deposition, I would assume, and tomorrow will be an even longer deposition,” Comer said.
The GOP-led panel and the lawyers for the former first couple made this deal so that they could be there in person.
In addition to their staff, lawmakers on both sides will be able to question Hillary Clinton.
Fox News learned that Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., will be the first lawmaker to ask the former first lady and Obama administration official questions.
Mace was one of four House Republicans who were able to get a vote late last year to get the Department of Justice (DOJ) to release files on Epstein, even though GOP leaders were against it.
The Republican from South Carolina, who is running for governor of the Palmetto State, told reporters on Thursday that she would also be asking Hillary Clinton about Trump Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and other people who have been linked to Epstein.
Comer told reporters that she would also be asked about her relationship with Ghislaine Maxwell, who helped Epstein. She pointed out that Maxwell was at Chelsea Clinton’s wedding in 2010, after the first allegations against Epstein came to light.
He also said that Epstein and Maxwell’s connections to the nonprofit Clinton Foundation would be looked into.
“Again, we’re not accusing Hillary Clinton of wrongdoing. 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,” Comer said.
“Again, that’s not saying anything illegal, but there are a lot of questions pertaining to Secretary Clinton with respect to Epstein and his involvement in the Clinton initiative and her relationship with with Ghislaine Maxwell.”
But Clinton’s prepared remarks show that she accused Republicans of going on a “fishing expedition” to find information that isn’t there.
“If this committee is serious about learning the truth about Epstein’s trafficking crimes, it would not rely on press giggles to get answers from our current president on his involvement. It would ask him directly, under oath, about the tens of thousands of times who showed up in the Epstein files. If the majority was serious, it would not waste time on fishing expeditions. There is too much that needs to be done,” her remarks said.
No one has accused either of the Clintons or Trump of doing anything wrong with Epstein.
The names of both the current and former presidents, as well as other famous people like Bill Gates and Leslie Wexner, are mentioned many times in the Epstein files.
Obama Accuses JD Vance Of Promoting ‘Blood And Soil’ Politics
Former President Barack Obama rarely mentions Vice President JD Vance by name, but that changed this week with one of his sharpest public attacks since Vance took office.
The comments immediately fueled speculation that Democrats are beginning to focus more attention on the vice president as Republicans look ahead to the post-Trump era.
Speaking Thursday during a conversation with author Malcolm Gladwell, Obama accused Vance of promoting what he described as a “blood and soil” vision of America, despite being married to Usha Vance, the daughter of Indian immigrants.
Obama made the remarks while discussing the Reconstruction era and arguing that many of the same debates over citizenship, voting rights and national identity continue today.
“We have a politics now that at least one of our major parties has been captured by politics that is not that subtle about suggesting that ‘We the people’ means a certain kind of people,” Obama said.
“When you have the vice president, current vice president, making a speech that is basically a blood and soil version of ‘We the people,’ that it matters who your parents were and how long they’ve been here despite him being married to a daughter of an immigrant himself.”
The phrase “blood and soil” is historically associated with Nazi Germany and white nationalist ideology.
Obama went on to argue that debates over who belongs in America remain central to the nation’s politics.
“That echoes, then, ideas about who can be a citizen, who belongs, who gets to make decisions,” he said.
Gladwell followed by accusing Vance of hypocrisy, arguing that the vice president was making what he called a nativist argument despite his own family’s immigrant background.
Obama agreed.
“That is progress,” Obama said.
“Listen, hypocrisy is progress. It is, because it means that you feel guilty enough to either lie to yourself or others.”
Fox News Digital reported that it reached out to Vance’s office for comment.
Obama did not identify the specific speech he was criticizing, but Vance’s most recent nationally televised remarks came during Independence Day celebrations marking America’s 250th birthday.
In that speech, Vance encouraged Americans to reject what he called a “two-dimensional view” of the country focused only on its historical failures.
“So what I’d ask you to do, my fellow Americans, on our 250th birthday, is to reject the two-dimensional view of your fellow citizens and reject the two-dimensional view of your country,” Vance said.
“Reject the view of your nation that sees only its sins, but not its grace and its greatness.”
He also emphasized that America’s accomplishments were achieved by “a common people working towards a common future.”
Obama has generally avoided making Vance a regular target since the vice president took office.
One notable exception came during the 2024 presidential campaign when then-Vice President Kamala Harris selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate.
Without naming Vance directly, Obama contrasted Harris’ choice with the Republican ticket.
“When a presidential candidate chooses a running mate, it says a lot about who they are and what kind of president they’ll be,” Obama said at the time, Fox News reported.
Political observers have increasingly discussed Vance as a potential frontrunner for the 2028 Republican presidential nomination, though he has not announced any plans to run.
Against that backdrop, Obama’s unusually direct criticism is likely to fuel speculation that some Democrats are beginning to sharpen their message against a politician they view as a likely future standard-bearer for the Republican Party. While no Democratic leaders have publicly described their strategy in those terms, prominent figures often begin drawing contrasts with potential future rivals well before a presidential campaign officially begins.
Whether that proves to be the case remains to be seen, but Obama’s remarks marked one of his most pointed critiques of Vance to date and ensured the vice president once again found himself at the center of the national political conversation.
