UFOs, Pizzagate and leaked photographs: Hillary Clinton faces powerful questions over Epstein recordsdata

Hillary Clinton denies information of Epstein crimes in Home Testimony (AP)

Former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton testified for greater than six hours behind closed doorways on Thursday earlier than the Republican-led Home Oversight Committee as a part of its investigation into Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.The deposition, held within the Clintons’ hometown of Chappaqua, New York, adopted months of tense back-and-forth between the previous Democratic energy couple and the committee. The Clintons had resisted the panel’s subpoena, dismissing it as politically motivated, earlier than agreeing to testify as potential contempt-of-Congress proceedings loomed in opposition to them.It was the primary time {that a} former president has been compelled to testify earlier than Congress. Former President Invoice Clinton is scheduled to look earlier than the committee on Friday.

In a gap assertion shared on social media, Hillary Clinton stated she had no information of the felony actions of Epstein or Maxwell. “I had no thought about their felony actions. I don’t recall ever encountering Mr. Epstein,” she stated.“I don’t recall ever encountering Mr. Epstein,” she stated in her ready remarks. “I by no means flew on his airplane or visited his island, houses or workplaces. I’ve nothing so as to add to that.”“Like each respectable particular person,” she added, “I’ve been horrified by what we now have discovered about their crimes.”Clinton stated Thursday she was assured her husband knew nothing of Epstein’s abuse of minors or different crimes. “I feel the chronology of the connection that he had with Epstein ended years, a number of years, earlier than something about Epstein’s felony actions got here to gentle,” she stated after giving what she described as a “lengthy and really repetitive” deposition.

After her deposition, Hillary stated that the questioning shifted after she repeatedly advised Home Republicans she didn’t know Jeffrey Epstein.She stated the change grew to become “fairly uncommon, as a result of I began being requested about UFOs and a sequence of questions on Pizzagate, one of the vital vile, bogus conspiracy theories that was propagated on the web, that was serving as the idea of a member’s inquiries to me.”Pizzagate was a 2016 conspiracy idea constructed on the false declare that members of Clinton’s marketing campaign crew used coded emails to debate baby intercourse slaves allegedly held within the basement of Comet Ping Pong — a pizza restaurant in Washington, DC, that has no basement and no connection to baby sex-trafficking.The conspiracy idea was promoted by far-right supporters of Donald Trump, together with Jack Posobiec, till late 2016 when a person armed with an assault rifle, who believed the claims had been true, entered the restaurant to “self-investigate” and fired a shot inside.Talking to reporters after her deposition, Hillary stated she answered each query that was requested of her.

Hillary accused the committee of focusing on her to distract from Donald Trump.“You may have compelled me to testify, absolutely conscious that I’ve no information that may help your investigation, with a purpose to distract consideration from President Trump’s actions and to cowl them up regardless of official requires solutions,” she stated in her opening assertion.She stated the committee ought to ask Trump “immediately below oath concerning the tens of 1000’s of instances he reveals up within the Epstein recordsdata.”Trump was a one-time shut buddy of Epstein however has not been charged with any wrongdoing associated to the disgraced financier, who died in a New York jail cell in 2019 whereas awaiting trial for intercourse trafficking.Hillary additionally accused the committee of an “institutional failure” that was designed to “defend one political occasion and one public official, relatively than to hunt reality and justice for the victims and survivors (of Epstein).”

The Clintons and members of the Home Oversight Committee agreed to 5 subject areas for the depositions. They’re:

The committee’s investigation has additionally sought to grasp why the Division of Justice below earlier presidential administrations didn’t search additional fees in opposition to Epstein following a 2008 association by which he pleaded responsible to state fees in Florida for soliciting prostitution from an underage woman however averted federal fees.

The testimony was briefly halted after Rep Lauren Boebert shared {a photograph} of Hillary answering questions from contained in the deposition room. The picture was posted on social media by Benny Johnson.Hillary’s attorneys instantly requested to pause the proceedings, noting that she had been denied her request for a public listening to. The deposition resumed about half-hour later. Rep Suhas Subramanyam, D-Va., stated the primary hour of the deposition earlier than the interruption had been a humiliation to Republicans, turning up nothing of significance. “Secretary Clinton is puzzled as to why she’s right here answering questions,” he stated. “I am making an attempt to determine what else to ask her. She does not know a lot.”

Pictures, flights and social occasions resurface

Hillary Clinton has beforehand stated her husband flew with Epstein for charitable journeys however that she didn’t recall ever assembly Epstein.Invoice Clinton traveled on Epstein’s non-public airplane no less than 16 instances, based on a CNN overview, and was pictured with girls in a jacuzzi in recordsdata launched by the US Division of Justice. A number of photographs of the previous president had been included within the first tranche of Epstein recordsdata launched in January, together with plenty of him with girls whose faces had been redacted. He was additionally pictured with Ghislaine Maxwell.Hillary Clinton acknowledged that she had interacted with Maxwell at conferences hosted by the Clinton Basis. Maxwell, a British socialite and Epstein’s former girlfriend and confidant, additionally attended the 2010 marriage ceremony of the Clintons’ daughter, Chelsea Clinton.Whereas exiting the occasion heart the place the deposition was held, Clinton advised reporters that Maxwell had come to the marriage as a visitor of another person and that she had advised the committee she solely knew Maxwell “as an acquaintance.”Epstein survivors and legal professionals representing them have stated it’s important for the Clintons, notably the previous president, to testify as lawmakers proceed to look at the federal government’s dealing with of the case.