Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton appeared before the US House of Representatives Oversight Committee in late February, as Congress revisited the political fallout from the Epstein files. The former secretary of state – who ran unsuccessfully against Donald Trump in 2016 – was questioned on Thursday, the former president the following day.
The couple, long regarded as part of the Democratic Party’s upper ranks, were summoned by James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight Committee. He had announced the move last November, accusing opposition lawmakers of ‘selectively’ publishing material known as the Epstein Files.
Documents from the estate of the New York financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein resurfaced as political ammunition in late January and early February, reigniting partisan accusations. Democrats pointed to Epstein’s past contacts with Trump and his Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
Republicans, in turn, referred to numerous entries in the flight log of Epstein’s private aircraft, the ‘Lolita Express’, which included Bill Clinton’s name.
The 42nd president of the United States – alongside figures such as Bill Gates, Woody Allen, David Copperfield and Epstein’s lawyer Alan Dershowitz – was among those who had visited Epstein’s private island. Republicans argue, however, that no Democratic administration has released as many Epstein-related documents as the Trump administration.
‘In the name of transparency’
Although the hearing of the former secretary of state, who recently attracted attention after a dispute with Czech minister Petr Macinka at the Munich Security Conference, was classified, Comer pledged to publish the full transcript ‘in the name of transparency’.
He thus echoed lawmakers from a bipartisan group led by Democrat Ro Khanna and Republican Thomas Massie, who introduced the Epstein Files Transparency Act (EFTA).
When the Clintons, through their lawyer, initially declined to comply with the subpoena, which is binding under House rules, the committee chairman moved to hold them in contempt – a formal legal step comparable to contempt of court.
On 3 February, reportedly amid renewed public pressure following the release of further files, the former first couple agreed to appear before Congress and address the questions set out in the subpoena. Even some Democrats had warned that failure to comply could lead to contempt proceedings.
Hillary Clinton defends herself
Before the hearing, Hillary Clinton issued a prepared opening statement denying any connection between herself or her husband and Epstein’s criminal conduct. ‘The committee justified my subpoena on the assumption that I have information related to the investigation of the criminal activities of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. Let me be as clear as possible: I do not,’ she said.
She added that of the eight federal employees who had worked at the Justice Department during the Epstein investigation, only one had appeared before the committee. According to her, not a single Republican member attended the hearing of Epstein associate Leslie Wexner.
Afterwards, she reiterated that she had never met Epstein, had been unaware of his crimes, including the trafficking of underage girls, and had known Maxwell ‘only casually’. She also expressed regret that the hearing was not held in public.
Clinton further stated that, despite an agreement with lawmakers to confine questioning to the Epstein files, ‘one of the congressmen broke that agreement’. Congresswoman Lauren Boebert of Colorado took a photograph of her and sent it to commentator Benny Johnson.
According to Clinton, Republican members repeatedly asked questions she had already answered. ‘I started getting questions about UFOs and a series of questions about Pizzagate, one of the most disgusting and nonsensical conspiracy theories,’ she said.
After emails from her private server were leaked, WikiLeaks published tens of thousands of messages marked ‘secret’ or ‘top secret’. Some exchanges between Clinton and her campaign chairman John Podesta fuelled allegations that senior Democrats were involved in ritual abuse in the basement of the Comet Ping Pong restaurant in Washington.
Supporters of Trump have argued that the controversy prompted senior figures in the CIA and FBI to fabricate allegations linking his campaign to Russian intelligence.
‘There were more than a dozen instances where she said, “I don’t know, you’ll have to ask my husband”,’ Comer said. ‘It’s a shame it took seven months to get to this point,’ he added.
‘We will try to release the video as soon as possible, hopefully within 24 hours,’ the chairman said. ‘It’s a very long testimony, so as soon as the video is ready, we will release it. The transcript will be released as soon as it is approved by her lawyers.’
At a press conference after the hearing, Hillary Clinton also defended her husband, whom she supported during the scandal involving former White House intern Monica Lewinsky. ‘Most people who came into contact with him before his guilty plea in 2008 were like most people – they didn’t know what he was doing,’ she said, referring to Epstein.
Bill Clinton rejects accusations
In his opening statement, the former president declared that ‘no one is above the law, especially presidents’, echoing a long-standing Democratic campaign theme.
‘Democracy requires that every person play their part, and I hope that by being here today, we can move a little further away from the abyss and return to being a country where we can disagree politely,’ he said, adding that the hearing also owed a duty to ‘the girls and women’ whose lives Epstein had destroyed and who ‘deserve not only justice, but healing’.
‘Although my brief acquaintance with Epstein ended years before his crimes came to light, and although I never witnessed any indication of what was really going on during our brief acquaintance, I am here to offer what little I know to prevent this from happening again,’ he continued.
He then criticised the committee’s decision to summon his wife. ‘You forced Hillary to come. She had nothing to do with Epstein. Nothing. She doesn’t even remember meeting him. She didn’t travel with him or visit any of his residences. Whether you summoned ten or ten thousand people, summoning her was simply wrong,’ he said.
He concluded: ‘I know what I saw, and more importantly, what I didn’t see,’ and ‘I know what I did, and more importantly, what I didn’t do.’
‘As someone who grew up in a home where domestic violence occurred, not only would I not fly on his plane if I had any inkling of what he was doing, but I would report him myself and call for just punishment for his crimes, not lenient deals,’ he said, referring to the plea agreement reached in Florida by the then federal prosecutor Alexander Acosta, who later served as US labour secretary.
Under that agreement, Epstein was allowed extensive work release from prison and was freed after 18 months. ‘By the time this came to light in 2008, I had long since stopped seeing him,’ Clinton said.
Like his wife, he posted his opening remarks on X. Unlike her, however, he did not disable comments.
‘Everyone knows you’re lying. You can’t visit Epstein’s island 34 times by accident,’ one commenter wrote.
Photographs of Clinton with women later identified as Epstein accusers have circulated repeatedly in recent years. One widely published image from 2002 shows the former president receiving a massage from Chauntae Davies, who subsequently accused Epstein of abuse.