House lawmakers Thursday began questioning former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about her relationship with sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and his girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell.
Mrs. Clinton and former President Bill Clinton agreed to provide separate, sworn depositions about Epstein and Maxwell this week under threat of a House vote to hold them in contempt of Congress.
The former president will provide a sworn deposition to lawmakers on Friday. Both interviews will take place in Chappaqua, New York, where the Clintons live.
Mr. Clinton had a yearslong relationship with Epstein that began after he left the White House.
Mrs. Clinton said she never met Epstein. But it appears she had a relationship with Maxwell, who was a guest at daughter Chelsea Clinton’s wedding in 2010. Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking and is believed to have played the most prominent role in luring girls into Epstein’s universe.
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman James Comer, speaking to reporters ahead of the deposition, said lawmakers want to ask Mrs. Clinton about her relationship with Maxwell as well as Epstein’s fundraising for the Clinton Foundation.
“The American people have a lot of questions,” said Mr. Comer, Kentucky Republican. “To my knowledge, the Clintons haven’t answered very many, if any, questions about their knowledge or involvement with Epstein and Maxwell.”
Mrs. Clinton’s deposition is expected to take several hours.
Mr. Clinton’s scheduled sworn deposition on Friday may take longer, Mr. Comer said.
Mr. Comer suggested the panel would have far more questions for the former president, who flew aboard Epstein’s private jet and appears in photos alongside Epstein, Maxwell and Epstein’s sex trafficking victims.
Neither of the Clintons has ever been accused of wrongdoing in association with Epstein. Mr. Clinton said he cut ties with Epstein many years ago.
The former first couple’s testimony comes after months of negotiating with the Oversight panel.
The panel voted unanimously to subpoena the Clintons last year.
The couple’s legal team attempted to extricate them from providing in-person depositions by offering sworn statements. They finally agreed to provide in-person testimony after Democrats and Republicans on the committee voted to hold them in contempt of Congress for failing to show up for scheduled depositions on Capitol Hill.
“I think one thing that surprised the Clintons is they assumed the Democrats on the committee would vote in a partisan manner and not vote to hold the Clintons in contempt,” Mr. Comer said. “And what they learned was a majority of the Democrats on the committee either voted to hold the Clintons in contempt or voted present, and I think that’s a statement that this investigation is serious. It is a bipartisan investigation.”
