Hillary Clinton used her closed-door deposition before the House Oversight Committee to argue that President Donald Trump should be compelled to testify in the committee's investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, pivoting her own testimony into a recitation of Trump's civil and criminal legal history.

As reported by Newsweek, the committee released a video of the deposition on Monday. Clinton, who sat for questioning last week alongside a separate deposition from former President Bill Clinton, spent notable time not on what she knew about the late convicted sex offender, but on why the committee should focus its attention on Trump instead.

Clinton told the committee she would put Trump on her "witness list" if she were running the investigation:

"So if I were running the committee or I were involved in this investigation, I would be looking for people who maybe had some prior conduct that might be relevant to either money or crimes. And yes I think that it would be in keeping with the scope of the investigation of this committee to set up a deposition with President Trump."

The deflection playbook

The former Secretary of State was subpoenaed to testify about what she knows regarding Epstein's criminal activities. By her own admission, that knowledge amounts to nothing.

Clinton shared her opening statement on X, where she was unequivocal:

"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 added that she never flew on Epstein's plane or visited his island. She has "nothing to add."

So, summoned before Congress with nothing to offer about the actual subject of the investigation, Clinton instead offered a lengthy case for why the committee should depose the sitting president. She cited Trump's civil liability finding in the E. Jean Carroll case and his 34 felony convictions related to hush money payments during the 2016 campaign.

"Donald Trump has been held civilly liable for sexual assault by a jury of his peers."

"He has also been convicted on 34 felony counts for attempting to hide his relationship with an escort and then to commit business fraud to prevent it from becoming public in the 2016 campaign which was ultimately election interference."

This is a person who says she has zero information about Jeffrey Epstein volunteering prosecutorial arguments about someone else's unrelated legal cases. The committee asked her about Epstein. She gave them Trump.

What the investigation actually looks like

The House Oversight Committee's work follows a straightforward trail. The Justice Department has released more than 3 million pages of documents related to Epstein. The names of both Clintons, along with Trump's, appear throughout the files. Appearing in those files is not an indication of wrongdoing, as the article notes.

Trump signed the Epstein Files Transparency Act in November 2025, the very legislation that enabled the document release Clinton was being questioned about. That fact sat conspicuously absent from her testimony.

The legal matters Clinton cited are well-documented. In May 2023, Trump was found liable in a civil suit brought by writer E. Jean Carroll, who accused him of assaulting her in the dressing room of a Manhattan department store in 1996. A jury awarded Carroll $5 million in damages. Trump denies all wrongdoing. In May 2024, a jury convicted Trump on 34 charges related to hush money payments to former adult film star Stormy Daniels.

Judge Juan M. Merchan imposed an unconditional discharge, leaving the conviction intact while imposing no punishment. An appellate court upheld the verdict in December 2024, and Trump's legal team petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to review the verdict in November 2025. Trump is appealing the conviction and has denied all wrongdoing.

None of this has anything to do with Jeffrey Epstein.

The theatrics

Clinton nearly walked out of the deposition after learning that Colorado Republican Lauren Boebert had leaked photos from the proceedings. Her tone shifted immediately:

"I'm done with this. If you guys are doing that, I am done. You can hold me in contempt from now until the cows come home. This is just typical behavior."

When an unidentified voice pointed out that the photo was taken before the hearing started, Clinton dismissed the distinction: "It doesn't matter. We all are abiding by the same rules."

The anger over a leaked photograph stood in sharp contrast to the cool, rehearsed quality of everything else she offered. When the topic was Epstein, Clinton was composed and detached. She recalled nothing, knew nothing, had nothing. When the topic became her own image being shared without her control, her composure cracked.

The pattern that actually matters

Clinton told the committee that Trump's legal history "fits a pattern if one were looking for a pattern." She might want to be careful with that framework.

Both Clintons were deposed. Both Clintons' names appear throughout millions of pages of Epstein-related documents. Hillary Clinton says she never encountered the man. Bill Clinton's deposition was conducted separately; his statements from it have not been detailed in the released materials so far.

The Clintons deny any wrongdoing related to Epstein. Fair enough. Trump also denies wrongdoing. The difference is that only one side showed up to a deposition about Epstein and spent the time talking about someone else's legal problems.

If Clinton genuinely has no information about Epstein, the deposition should have been brief and unremarkable. Instead, she turned it into an opposition research briefing. The committee asked about a dead sex trafficker. She delivered a closing argument from a campaign that ended a decade ago.

Congress released the tapes. The public can watch them. And what they'll see is a witness with nothing to say about the investigation and everything to say about the man she lost to.