Hillary Clinton testifies she never met Epstein, accuses GOP of "cover-up"

• "You have compelled me to testify, fully aware that I have no knowledge that would assist your investigation, in order to distract attention from President Trump's actions and to cover them up despite legitimate calls for answers," Hillary Clinton said in her opening statement to lawmakers.
• Clinton, who has long maintained that she has little information to offer the panel about Epstein, also told lawmakers that she is "horrified" to learn about Epstein and Maxwell's crimes and that her "heart breaks for the survivors."
• "The American people have a lot of questions... The Clintons haven't answered very many, if any, questions about their knowledge or involvement with Epstein and [Ghislaine] Maxwell, " Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) told reporters Thursday morning before the deposition.

Clinton told the panel Thursday that she does not recall ever meeting Epstein, and told the New York Times that she met Maxwell only a few times.

• Her name does not appear to have been mentioned in the Justice Department's publicly released Epstein files.

The details: The closed-door interview, which will be videotaped, is taking place in Chappaqua, New York, where the Clintons have a house. The deposition is expected to last several hours.

• The committee is set to depose former President Bill Clinton on Friday. It will be the first time a former president has testified before a congressional panel in over 40 years.
• The Clintons have denied any wrongdoing tied to Epstein and have advocated for more transparency over the Epstein files.
• Comer acknowledged that "no one's accusing the Clintons of any wrongdoing, adding, "They're going to have due process."

The Oversight chairman told Axios on Wednesday that Republicans plan to question Hillary Clinton about whether Epstein was an asset for a foreign country, how he amassed his wealth and money he raised for the Clinton Foundation.

The other side: Democrats, meanwhile, framed the deposition as a partisan exercise, though noted they are interested in speaking with anyone who has information about Epstein.

• "There is no indication, zero, zilch, nada, that Secretary Clinton had any knowledge of Epstein's crimes," Rep. James Walkinshaw (D-Va.) said. "She submitted a sworn statement that she never met Jeffrey Epstein, and my fear is we're here today as part of a political exercise, part of a long running fever dream where Republicans want to lock up Secretary Clinton."
• House Oversight Ranking Member Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) told reporters that Thursday's deposition "sets a precedent," noting Democrats' demands to hear from President Trump as part of the panel's probe into Epstein.

Catch up quick: The depositions follow a months-long back and forth over securing the Clintons' testimony.

• The Clintons were issued subpoenas in August, with depositions initially scheduled for October, then delayed until December.
• Comer set January dates without confirmation the Clintons would appear.

Zoom in: The Oversight Committee voted on a bipartisan basis to hold the Clintons in contempt of Congress after they failed to appear in January.

• As the full House prepared to vote on the contempt resolution, the Clintons agreed to testify, squashing the effort. Contempt, a rarely used congressional enforcement tool, carries a maximum penalty of up to one year in prison and a fine of up to $100,000.
• The Clintons had pushed to testify in a public hearing rather than behind closed doors, but Comer said the committee's practice is to conduct transcribed interviews before holding public sessions.
• "Other witnesses were asked to testify. They gave written statements under oath. We offered that," Hillary Clinton told the BBC in an interview last week.

Zoom out: President Trump directed the Justice Department to investigate Epstein's connections to Bill Clinton and others.

• Bill Clinton's name was featured frequently throughout the millions of Epstein files, and the files included multiple photos of him.
• He also traveled aboard Epstein's plane during Clinton Foundation trips in the early 2000s, before Epstein was charged with sex crimes.

What's next: Oversight will work to get the transcript and video of the deposition released to the public as soon as possible, Comer said Wednesday.