CHAPPAQUA, N.Y.— Hillary Clinton said she repeatedly told members of a Republican-led House committee that she had no knowledge of Jeffrey Epstein’s wrongdoing, characterizing the lengthy closed-door deposition as a partisan fishing exercise.
The former secretary of state said that she had no information to share about any criminal activity by the convicted sex offender or his associate Ghislaine Maxwell and that the House Oversight Committee should instead be calling President Trump to give a deposition over his past relationship with Epstein.
“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. So it’s on the record numerous times,” Clinton told reporters after the all-day session concluded. In a statement earlier in the day, she said she was called to testify “in order to distract attention from President Trump’s actions.”
Hillary Clinton’s deposition came ahead of former President Bill Clinton’s testimony, which is scheduled for Friday. The testimony is taking place at a performing-arts center near their home in Chappaqua. The extraordinary circumstances involving the Epstein case marked the first time a former first lady and former president were speaking to a congressional committee under subpoena.
Oversight Committee Chair Rep. James Comer (R., Ky.) said that Clinton answered most of lawmakers’ questions, but Republicans weren’t satisfied with some of the answers and would be following up in their questioning of Bill Clinton.
“The number of times that she said, ‘I don’t know, you’ll have to ask my husband,’ was more than a dozen,” Comer said.
Comer has defended his investigation as a serious and bipartisan probe into Epstein and Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for helping recruit and groom underage girls. Comer worked for months to pressure Clinton and her husband to sit for depositions.
Lawmakers declined to discuss specific questions and answers from the interview. Comer said that a transcript would be released as soon as Hillary Clinton’s counsel approved it and that he hoped to release the video soon.
The deposition was briefly paused after Rep. Lauren Boebert (R., Colo.) sent a photo of Clinton to MAGA influencer Benny Johnson , who then posted it on X. House rules prohibit taking photographs of closed-door proceedings.
Clinton said toward the end of the deposition, “it got quite unusual,” as she was asked about UFOs and the Pizzagate conspiracy theory from a decade ago. Of Bill Clinton’s deposition, Hillary Clinton said she believed that most people who were in contact with Epstein before his guilty plea in 2008 “did not know what he was doing, and I think that is exactly what my husband will testify to tomorrow.”
Comer said his committee, which has been conducting its investigation since last year, wasn’t accusing Hillary Clinton of any wrongdoing. The Clintons have previously said they had no personal knowledge of Epstein’s criminal activities.
Bill Clinton has acknowledged flying on Epstein’s private jet for foundation work in 2002 and 2003, but has said he never visited Epstein’s private island. Clinton allies have cast the investigation as politically motivated and aimed at embarrassing the couple.
Rep. Robert Garcia (D., Calif.), the top Democrat on the committee, said Clinton didn’t invoke her Fifth Amendment right against self incrimination.
“I’ve been involved in leading investigations of serious offenses. And this ain’t it,” said Rep. Wesley Bell (D., Mo.), a former prosecutor.
U.S. Representative Robert Garcia (D-CA) speaks on the day of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appearance for a deposition in the House Oversight Committee investigation of late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, at the Chappaqua Performing Arts Center in Chappaqua, New York, U.S., February 26, 2026. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton
Democrats also pushed for Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to testify. Lutnick earlier this month said that he visited Epstein’s private island in 2012 with his wife and children, years after Lutnick previously said he had cut off ties with him. Lutnick said he has done “absolutely nothing wrong in any possible regard.”
The White House declined to comment on whether Lutnick would be willing to be deposed. Comer and other Republicans have argued that Trump had answered publicly thousands of questions about Epstein while the Clintons had not.
For Hillary Clinton, who served as secretary of state in the Obama administration and as a New York senator, the deposition reprises memories of her contentious marathon 2015 hearing before Congress over the Benghazi attack in Libya. She has previously endured scandals centered around her husband’s political career and presidency, including investigations into the Whitewater land deal and his affair with Monica Lewinsky .
Epstein and Trump spent time together in the 1990s and early 2000s and were photographed at social events. Trump has said his friendship with Epstein ended before Epstein pleaded guilty to procuring a minor for prostitution in 2008. When Epstein was arrested again in 2019, Trump said he hadn’t talked to Epstein for about 15 years.
The White House said Trump had cooperated by signing the Epstein Files Transparency Act into law and called for investigations into Democratic lawmakers. “Just as President Trump has said, he’s been totally exonerated on anything relating to Epstein,” said White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson .
The deposition comes after weeks of legal wrangling that nearly resulted in the House’s voting to hold both Clintons in contempt of Congress. The committee had advanced contempt resolutions last month, with several Democrats joining Republicans—with more crossing party lines on the vote involving Bill Clinton—before the Clintons agreed to appear .
Files released by the Justice Department beginning in December included photographs of Bill Clinton and references to his past interactions with Epstein. Being mentioned in the files isn’t an indication of wrongdoing. A review of the files by The Wall Street Journal didn’t find correspondence with Hillary Clinton, though her name appears in news clippings in Epstein’s email inbox. Maxwell attended the 2010 wedding of Chelsea Clinton , the Clintons’ daughter, as a guest of computer entrepreneur Ted Waitt .
Bill Clinton wrote in his 2024 memoir “Citizen” that he “had no inkling” of Epstein’s crimes at the time. “He hurt a lot of people, but I knew nothing about it.”
Epstein died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.
