Epstein Probe Expands: Hillary Clinton Testifies, Lawmakers Weigh Next Steps
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told lawmakers Thursday that she had no knowledge of Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes, and that she does not remember meeting him. “I never flew on his plane or visited his island home or offices,” she told House Oversight Committee members in a closed-door hearing in Chappaqua, New York, where the Clintons have a home. Former President Bill Clinton is set to talk to lawmakers on Friday.
HOW WE GOT HERE: The pair only agreed to talk after a House panel voted in January to recommend holding them in criminal contempt of Congress for initially refusing to comply with subpoenas.
INSIDE THE DEPOSITION: Clinton described the questioning as getting “quite unusual” during a press conference late Thursday. “I started being asked about UFOs and a series of questions about Pizzagate – one of the most vile, bogus conspiracy theories that was propagated on the internet.”
CLINTONS V. TRUMP
Hillary Clinton released the transcript of her opening statement to the committee on X Thursday morning, which called on lawmakers to ask Trump “under oath about the tens of thousands of times he shows up in the Epstein files.” She accused the administration of a cover-up and called Congress’s investigation a “fishing expedition.”
BIG PICTURE: Neither the Clintons nor Trump are accused of visiting Epstein’s notorious island or engaging in any illegal activity. Records indicate that both Bill Clinton and Trump flew on Epstein’s private plane several times, years before Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting prostitution from a minor.
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA), the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, said Thursday: "We have said from day one that we want to talk to former President Bill Clinton, and the other person we want to talk to is current President Donald Trump.”
MORE TO COME?
House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-KY) said Thursday that he is not ruling out subpoenaing Trump’s Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to testify as part of the panel’s Epstein probe. Lutnick claimed last year that his ties to Epstein ended in 2005, but Justice Department records show he met with the convicted sex offender for lunch in 2012 on Epstein’s island — the centerpiece of the trafficking allegations — with his family.
Comer also said Thursday that lawmakers are “looking into” an NPR report on more than 50 pages of unreleased documents — including FBI interviews and notes tied to a woman who accused the president of sexually assaulting her when she was a teenager in the 1980s. The Justice Department said Wednesday that it would publish any documents “found to have been improperly tagged” as privileged or confidential, that are legally required to be made public by the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
PUBLIC FALLOUT CONTINUES
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates apologized to his Gates Foundation staff during a town hall Tuesday for his Epstein ties. He denied involvement in Epstein’s crimes, but acknowledged having two affairs with Russian women, who he said were not Epstein victims. “I did nothing illicit. I saw nothing illicit,” he said, according to a recording reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
Recently released Epstein files include photos of Gates with women whose faces are redacted. Gates said Epstein asked him to pose with his assistants.
Gates said he first met Epstein in 2011, three years after Epstein’s guilty plea, and admitted he did not thoroughly vet him beforehand.
Gates noted that his ex-wife, Melinda French Gates, expressed concerns about Epstein around 2013, but the two continued to meet.
Gates’s apology comes as high-profile billionaires and executives continue to resign in recent weeks, following the recent Epstein Files document releases.
Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers said Wednesday that he will retire from his role as a tenured professor at Harvard University after emails showed he communicated with Epstein as recently as 2019. Harvard called his departure a resignation, after the school’s former president was placed on leave in November when emails were made public.
Recent resignations have also included Thomas Pritzker, chairman of Hyatt Hotels who resigned from the company last week, and Peter Attia, a wellness influencer who stepped down from his role at CBS News this week.
We covered a longer list of high-profile names — from former Prince Andrew to the head of one of the largest law firms in the U.S. — in this newsletter.