WASHINGTON, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a congressional committeeon Thursday that she did not recall ever meetingthe late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and had no information to share about his criminal activities.
"I do not recall ever encountering Mr. Epstein. I never flew on his plane or visited his island, homes or offices. I have nothing to add to that," Clinton said in a statement to the House of Representatives Oversight Committee.
Clinton's statement came as she was due to deliver a closed-door deposition to the committeein Chappaqua, New York.
Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, also accused the Republican-led panel of trying to shift focus away from Trump's ties to Epstein, who died by suicide in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges. She said Trump's administration has "gutted" a State Department office focused on international sex trafficking.
She and her husband, Democratic former President Bill Clinton, initially refused to testify before the committee, but relented when lawmakers moved to hold them in contempt of Congress.
Bill Clinton is scheduled to testify to the committee on Friday.
Before the hearing, Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer of Kentucky, a Republican, denied that the probe was a partisan effort targeting Trump's 2016 presidential rival, noting that several Democrats had pushed for the Clintons to testify.
"No one is accusing at this moment the Clintons of any wrongdoing," Comer said.
He said the committee would seek to find out about any interactions she might have had with Epstein, his involvementwith the Clintons' charitable work, andany relationship she may have had with jailed Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell.
Representative Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the committee, told reporters that Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick should also testify. Lutnick has admitted to visiting Epstein's private island years after he says he broke off ties.
A spokesperson for the Clintons did not respond to a request for comment. Comer said transcripts of the Clintons' interviews will be made public.
Bill Clintonflew on Epstein's plane several times in the early 2000s after he left office. He has denied wrongdoing and expressed regret for his association.
According to Comer, Epstein visited the White House 17 times while Clinton was in office.
Trump also socialized extensively with Epstein in the 1990s and 2000s, before his 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor. Comer said evidence gathered by the panel does not implicate Trump.
Trump's Justice Department has released more than 3 million pages of Epstein-related documents over the past several months to comply with a law passed by Congress.
The Justice Department sought to draw attention to photos of Bill Clinton, but the documents also have revealed Epstein's ties to a long list of business and political leaders, including Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
Overseas, they have prompted criminal investigations of Britain's Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the former Duke of York, and other prominent figures.
(Reporting by Richard Cowan and Nolan D. McCaskill; editing by Andy Sullivan and Alistair Bell)
