Hillary Clinton testifies she didn’t know Epstein

What happened

The House Oversight Committee Thursday interviewed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for more than six hours as part of its Jeffrey Epstein investigation. Clinton told the Republican-led committee she had never met Epstein, had no knowledge of his crimes and was being used as a prop in “partisan political theater” aimed at protecting “one political party and one public official.”

Who said what

“I don’t know how many times I had to say I did not know Jeffrey Epstein,” Clinton told reporters after her deposition at a performing arts center near her home in Chappaqua, New York. “I never went to his island. I never went to his homes. I never went to his offices.”

The closed-door deposition was a “rancorous, partisan affair” from the start, CNN said. It “briefly went off the rails,” The New York Times said, after Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) violated committee rules by sending a photo of Clinton testifying to MAGA influencer Benny Johnson, who posted it on social media. Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.) said the breach showed that Republicans were using this “incredibly unserious clown show of a deposition” to get “their photo op” of Clinton, not hold anyone accountable for Epstein’s crimes.

What next?

Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) said he “learned a lot” from Clinton but “we have a lot of questions for her husband,” former President Bill Clinton, at his deposition today. Republicans are “eager to make Bill Clinton their bogeyman,” Politico said, but the committee’s “focus on the Clintons” is “fueling accusations from Democrats that the GOP is deflecting from President Donald Trump’s own ties” to Epstein. Forcing Bill Clinton to testify “set a new precedent about talking to presidents and former presidents,” said the committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Robert Garcia (Calif.), and his party plans to use that precedent to depose Trump if they win control of the House.