The former secretary of state was testifying to Congress on Feb. 26.
Hillary Clinton told members of Congress on Feb. 26 that she does not have knowledge about crimes carried out by sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, now deceased, and his one-time girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell.
“I had no idea about their criminal activities. I do not recall ever encountering Mr. Epstein. I never flew on his plane or visited his island, homes, or offices,” the former first lady and secretary of state said in her opening statement to the House Oversight Committee.
Clinton said she was horrified to learn about the crimes and was disappointed that Epstein received only 13 months in prison in 2008 after pleading guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution.
Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, was also slated to testify to the panel in its investigation into Epstein. The Clintons agreed to testify after the House of Representatives was prepared to hold them in contempt for originally declining to answer questions on the matter.
Epstein died by suicide in federal prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2022 for conspiring with Epstein to sexually abuse young girls.
Bill Clinton flew on Epstein’s plane in 2002 and 2003, according to flight logs and photographs. Court documents stated that he went to Epstein’s island, where authorities say Epstein repeatedly abused minors.
Maxwell told Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche in 2025 that she was friends with Bill Clinton and that the former president never went to the island.
“He never, absolutely never, went,” she said. “And I can be sure of that because there’s no way he would have gone. I don’t believe there’s any way that he would’ve gone to the island had I not been there. Because I don’t believe he had an independent friendship, if you will, with Epstein.”
Epstein also went to the White House multiple times while Bill Clinton was president. Maxwell also attended the wedding of the Clintons’ only daughter in 2010.
Bill Clinton’s spokesperson told New York Magazine in 2002, “Jeffrey is both a highly successful financier and a committed philanthropist with a keen sense of global markets and an in-depth knowledge of twenty-first-century science.”
