Hillary Clinton breaks silence after marathon grilling in House Epstein probe

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wasted no time criticizing Republicans after emerging Thursday night from roughly six hours of questioning in the House Oversight Committee’s investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.

Clinton told reporters she answered questions “repetitively, literally over and over again” after lambasting Republicans for holding a closed-door deposition instead of a public hearing.

She said, however, that she would not testify again if there was a public hearing, telling reporters: “They had the opportunity to do it in public, and I wish they would have done it in public. And I think they are making the wrong decision, by not doing it in public.

“It then became quite unusual because I was asked questions about UFOs and a series of questions about Pizzagate, one of the most vile and false conspiracy theories propagated on the Internet and which was the basis for a member’s questions,” Clinton said.

Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks to the media outside the Chappaqua Performing Arts Center in Chappaqua, New York, Thursday, February 26, 2026. (Adam Gray/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

She also criticized Republican lawmakers for not attending former Victoria’s Secret CEO Leslie Wexner’s deposition in person.

Clinton, however, reserved praise for House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., “for raising a series of important questions that I answered about the nature of the investigation and the areas that I believe should be explored.”

“So I appreciated that. I want to see the truth come out. So it was a reassuring way to end a very long and repetitive deposition,” Clinton said.

She also reiterated comments from her opening statement that she did not know Epstein and said she only knew Ghislaine Maxwell “as an acquaintance.”

When asked why Maxwell was invited to her daughter Chelsea Clinton’s wedding, Clinton responded that she was “the plus-one of someone invited.”

Clinton’s deposition began at 11 a.m. and concluded at 5 p.m. in her hometown of Chappaqua, New York.

Comer said afterward that Clinton “answered most of our questions” in a “productive” deposition, but said Republicans were ultimately “not satisfied” with what they had gleaned.

“The number of times she said, ‘I don’t know, you’ll have to ask my husband,’ was over a dozen,” Comer said.

Rep. James Comer, Republican of Kentucky and chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, center, joined by Republican members of the House Oversight Committee, speaks to members of the media as they arrive for a closed-door deposition of former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the Chappaqua Performing Arts Center in Chappaqua, NY, February 26, 2026. (Adam Gray/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Former President Bill Clinton is scheduled to testify behind closed doors Friday for what Comer called an “even longer deposition.”

CLINTONS CAVE: COMER TELLS BILL AND HILLARY TO TESTIFY IN EPSTEIN INVESTIGATION

Neither Clinton is implicated in wrongdoing related to Epstein or Maxwell, but Bill Clinton was known to have a relationship with the late financier and sex trafficker before federal investigations into Epstein’s crimes came to light.

Hillary Clinton said the relationship “ended years, several years, before anything about Epstein’s criminal activities came to light.”

Rep. William Timmons, R-S.C., told Fox News Digital it was “frustrating” to see Hillary Clinton “obstinate and sort of bored with the process.”

“She had an excuse for everything. But when you have a model of involvement and a model of association, the American people deserve answers,” Timmons said.

“Honestly, I tend to find her pretty credible, but I mean, this is all going to come to a head tomorrow with President Clinton, and he has a lot of very difficult questions to answer. And I don’t think the American people are going to like his answers.”

The deposition was tense at times, a tension Clinton alluded to when she accused Republicans of breaking the rules when Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., apparently shared a photo from inside the deposition room with a right-wing influencer.

“We had some difficulty early on because we agreed to rules based on the fact that it would be a closed hearing at their request. And one of the members violated that rule, which was very upsetting because it suggested that they might be violating other of our agreements,” Clinton said.

“So we had to pause the hearing for a while until we could get assurance that no rules would be broken in the future.”

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It should be noted, however, that Democrats also released information from inside the room, but did not elicit a public reaction. A New York Times reporter reported on X’s deposition earlier today, citing a “Democratic member in the room.”

Bill Clinton’s deposition is also scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. Friday at the Chappaqua Performing Arts Center.

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