Incumbent Hillary Clinton says she never met Epstein, slams Republicans’ anti-sex-trafficking efforts
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Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton repeated her denial that she ever met the late criminal Jeffrey Epstein, this time in her speech to Congress, and questioned the House committee’s commitment to victims of sex trafficking.
“I have no recollection of meeting Mr. Epstein. I have never flown on his plane or visited his island, homes or offices. I have nothing to add to that,” Clinton, 78, said in her opening remarks, which she made public Thursday.
Clinton’s statement came as she was about to deliver her secret speech to the House of Representatives oversight committee in Chappaqua, NY, where she and former president Bill Clinton live.
Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee who opposed Donald Trump, also accused the Republican-led panel of trying to shift the focus from Trump’s relationship to Epstein, who died by suicide in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
“If this committee is serious about learning the truth about Epstein’s trafficking crimes, it won’t rely on the press to get answers from our president about his involvement; it will ask directly under oath about the tens of thousands of times he revealed the Epstein files.”‘
He doesn’t blame the Clintons, insists Republican Comer
Clinton, highlighting her efforts to combat sex trafficking while under Barack Obama, said the second Trump administration “fired” the State Department office dedicated to the issue.
“The committee trying to stop human trafficking will want to understand what steps are needed to fix the system that allowed Epstein to get away with his crimes in 2008,” he said, referring to the plea deal the Florida resident took on federal charges, while avoiding federal prosecution at the time.
James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, says that the Clintons were asked to give presentations to the US Congress because they ‘have not answered many questions’ about their relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. Comer also did not rule out the possibility of being interviewed by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who also had a relationship with a convicted sex offender.
The Clintons initially refused to testify before the committee, but withdrew when the House oversight committee led by Republican James Comer held them in contempt of Congress. Bill Clinton is scheduled to testify before the committee on Friday.
Comer, a Kentucky Republican, emphasized that it was a bipartisan effort to hear from the Clintons. Nine Democrats voted along with all 25 Republicans on the panel to hold Bill Clinton in contempt, with three Democrats joining the 25 Republicans in voting for Hillary Clinton.
“No one is accusing the Clintons of any wrongdoing,” Comer said.
He said the committee will want to find out about any interactions he may have had with Epstein, his involvement with the Clintons’ charity work, and any relationship he may have had with Epstein’s jailed associate Ghislaine Maxwell.
Maxwell attended the 2010 wedding of Chelsea Clinton, the Clintons’ daughter. Last year, the British socialite was first publicly mentioned as a person who may have bought girls for Epstein, although that media coverage was limited to Palm Beach, Fla., newspapers at a time before social media and #MeToo increased local news about sexual misconduct.
Maxwell’s name was mentioned because of Epstein’s 2009 settlement with Jane Doe’s victim, now known years later as the late Virginia Roberts Giuffre. Maxwell will be convicted of sex trafficking and sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2022.
Epstein visited the White House 17 times while Clinton was in office, according to records from her presidential library, but it’s unclear if they met face-to-face then. A photo from the early 1990s shows Epstein and Maxwell at a dinner party hosted by the White House with many other people in attendance.
Bill Clinton has denied any wrongdoing, or knowledge of Epstein’s criminal behavior during their relationship. The former president has said that their personal contact was concentrated between the years 2001 and 2003. Clinton has said that there was no communication between them after 2005, but she never came out publicly if there was a reason for the relationship to end.
Trump’s Justice Department released more than three million pages of documents related to Epstein in the past few months to comply with a law passed by Congress, the Epstein Transparency Act, led by House legislators Ro Khanna, a Democrat, and Republican Thomas Massie.
