Kamal Ghorui
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Ghislaine Maxwell attended her daughter Chelsea Clinton’s wedding in 2010 only as another person’s guest, after Clinton testified behind closed doors before the House Oversight Committee on February 26 about her ties to Jeffrey Epstein.Speaking to reporters at a press conference after her hearing, Clinton said Maxwell was somebody’s guest at the wedding, but she did not reveal who this person was. Maxwell, the imprisoned accomplice of Epstein, died by suicide in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting sex trafficking charges, Newsweek reported.Clinton’s testimony came amid continued scrutiny of high-profile figures named in files associated with Epstein after more than 3 million pages of documents related to Epstein were released by the Justice Department, following President Donald Trump’s signing of the Epstein Files Transparency Act in November 2025. Former President Bill Clinton appeared prominently in a batch of heavily redacted photographs, including images of him at a swimming pool alongside Epstein and Maxwell. Neither Hillary nor Bill Clinton has been accused of any wrongdoing, and appearing in the Epstein files does not imply wrongdoing or criminal behaviour.Yesterday’s testimony came after, in January, the Republican-led House Oversight Committee approved contempt resolutions against Bill Clinton 34-8 and against Hillary Clinton 28-15, after both failed to appear for subpoenaed depositions. The subpoenas were first issued in July. The Clintons raised concerns that the testimony requests were politically motivated, but they later reached an agreement with House Republicans and agreed to testify.Speaking to reporters after her six-hour hearing, Clinton said she had “no idea” about Epstein and Maxwell’s crimes.“I don’t know how many times I had to say I did not know Jeffrey Epstein. I never went to his island. I never went to his homes. I never went to his offices. So it’s on the record numerous times,” Clinton told reporters after the deposition.Clinton also told reporters that the end of the deposition was “quite unusual.”“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,” she said.The deposition was paused after Republican Representative Lauren Boebert shared a photo of Hillary Clinton taken during the closed-door proceeding with a conservative influencer, who posted it on social media in violation of committee deposition rules.Hillary Clinton shared her opening statement of the deposition on X: “The Committee justified its subpoena to me based on its assumption that I have information regarding the investigations into the criminal activities of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. Let me be as clear as I can. I do not.“As I stated in my sworn declaration on January 13, I had no idea about their criminal activities. I do not recall ever encountering Mr. Epstein.”She continued: “I never flew on his plane or visited his island. I have nothing to add to that.”Bill Clinton said on X earlier this month: “I will not sit idly as they use me as a prop in a closed-door kangaroo court by a Republican Party running scared. If they want answers, let’s stop the games & do this the right way: in a public hearing, where the American people can see for themselves what this is really about.”Bill Clinton’s deposition is scheduled for February 27. It will be the first time a former president has been compelled to testify before Congress.Maxwell is serving 20 years in federal prison for her role as Epstein’s accomplice in his sex trafficking operation.
