Democrats have as many questions about the Clintons’ alleged ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein as Republicans, House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer said Thursday morning.
Comer, a Republican from Kentucky, commented from Chappaqua, New York, where committee members traveled to conduct a closed-door deposition of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday. That will be followed by a deposition of former President Bill Clinton set for Friday near the home of the former first couple.
Hillary Clinton released her opening statement for the deposition, denying knowledge of Epstein’s criminal activity.
“I had no idea about their criminal activities. I do not recall ever encountering Mr. Epstein,” Clinton said in her opening statement.
The transcript and video of the depositions will be released at a later date.
The hearing was temporarily paused on Thursday after a photo of Clinton facing committee members was leaked to social media, Reuters reported. Conservative influencer Benny Johnson reported that Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., took the photo, according to Reuters.
The hearing was paused briefly after a photo of Clinton seated at a table was leaked to social media, in a violation of committee rules, according to Clinton adviser Nick Merrill. Conservative influencer Benny Johnson, who published the photo, said it was taken by Republican Representative Lauren Boebert.
“No one’s accusing at this moment the Clintons of any wrongdoing,” Comer told reporters ahead of the deposition Thursday.
“They’re going to have due process, but we have a lot of questions, and the purpose of the whole investigation is to try to understand many things about Epstein,” Comer added. “How did he accumulate so much wealth? How was he able to surround himself with some of the most powerful men in the world? Was he an asset for our government or any other government? These are the questions that we’re going to ask over the next two days.”
Epstein died in a New York federal prison in 2019, in what officials determined was a suicide.
Thursday’s deposition is the culmination of a months-long process that began when an House Oversight Federal Law Enforcement Subcommittee–in a bipartisan vote–subpoenaed ten individuals, including the Clintons, while investigating Epstein’s connections to influential people and the Justice Department’s past handling of the his investigation and prosecution.
The Clintons were initially scheduled for depositions in October, but declined. They also declined dates in December and January.
In late January, nine Democrats joined 25 Republicans on the full House Oversight Committee to advance a contempt of Congress charge against Bill Clinton, for failing to appear at his scheduled deposition earlier that month. Only three Democrats voted to hold Hillary Clinton in contempt for failing to appear at her deposition in January.
Ahead of a vote by the full House on the contempt of Congress charges, the Clintons agreed to a deposition to stave off the vote.
“Democrats voted to subpoena the Clintons. The Democrats voted with the Republicans to hold the Clintons in contempt,” Comer said. “So the Democrats have just as many questions for the Clintons as the Republicans. This isn’t a partisan witch hunt.”
Comer has noted that Bill Clinton was on Epstein’s plane two dozen times, while during the 1990s Epstein visited the Clinton White House more than a dozen times.
“They’ve never answered questions, unlike President Trump, who gets questioned every day, by just about every one of you, about his knowledge or involvement with Epstein, to my knowledge, the Clintons haven’t answered very many questions about it,” Comer said.
Comer has noted Hillary Clinton, as secretary of state, oversaw efforts to combat international sex trafficking. Further, Epstein was a donor to the Clinton Foundation and has claimed to be a founding donor of the Clinton Global Initiative.
The Clintons have denied Epstein’s claim of being a founding donor, and denied any wrongdoing in the Epstein matter.
The committee’s Republican majority controls the first hour of questioning in the deposition, and then the Democrat minority controls the second hour. The sequence will follow that pattern until the deposition concludes on both days.
Epstein’s associate Ghislaine Maxwell didn’t answer questions from a House panel Monday.
In 2022, Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison for “conspiracy to entice minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, conspiracy to transport minors to participate in illegal sex acts, transporting a minor to participate in illegal sex acts, sex trafficking conspiracy, and sex trafficking of a minor.”
She invoked her Fifth Amendment right this week not to testify against herself in response to a congressional subpoena. Her lawyer David Oscar Markus, seeking clemency for his client in exchange for her testimony, told the committee that “both President Trump and President Clinton are innocent of any wrongdoing.”
This article has been updated with new information.