The closed-door deposition of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was paused Thursday after Colorado Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert sent a photo of Clinton in the room to a conservative influencer who posted it on social media, violating the committee’s rules for depositions.
Clinton told U.S. House lawmakers on Thursday that she had no knowledge of Jeffrey Epstein’s or Ghislaine Maxwell’s crimes at the start of two days of depositions that will also include former President Bill Clinton.
Boebert’s photo-sharing incident prompted the former secretary of state, senator and First Lady to repeat her longstanding demand that the deposition be made open to reporters.
Democrats said the incident underscored how important it was for there to be a clear public record of the deposition. Democrats also called for a video and transcript of the complete proceedings to be released quickly.
The Clintons agreed to testify after their offers of sworn statements were rebuffed by the House Oversight panel, whose chairman, Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., threatened criminal contempt of Congress charges against them.
Bill Clinton’s testimony will be the first time a former president has been forced to testify before Congress — the latest sign that the demand for a reckoning over Epstein’s abuse of underage girls has become a near-unstoppable force on Capitol Hill and beyond.
The closed-door depositions in the Clintons’ hometown of Chappaqua, a typically quiet hamlet north of New York City, come after months of tense back-and-forth between the former high-powered Democratic couple and the Republican-controlled House Oversight Committee. It will be the first time that a former president has been forced to testify before Congress.
President Donald Trump, a Republican who has expressed regret that the Clintons are being forced to testify, bowed last year to pressure to release case files on Epstein, who killed himself in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial.
“Like every decent person,” Hillary Clinton added in her opening statement, “I have been horrified by what we have learned about their crimes.”
She has previously said that her husband flew with Epstein for charitable trips but that she did not recall ever meeting Epstein. She had also interacted with Maxwell, Epstein’s former girlfriend and confidant, at conferences hosted by the Clinton Foundation.
Maxwell, a British socialite, also attended the 2010 wedding of the Clintons’ daughter, Chelsea Clinton.
During a break in the deposition after several hours, Democratic lawmakers said that Hillary Clinton had answered every question posed to her.
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