{"id":19397,"date":"2026-02-26T17:01:37","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T17:01:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/hillary-clinton-accuses-oversight-republicans-of-political-theater-in-opening-statement\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T17:01:37","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T17:01:37","slug":"hillary-clinton-accuses-oversight-republicans-of-political-theater-in-opening-statement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/hillary-clinton-accuses-oversight-republicans-of-political-theater-in-opening-statement\/","title":{"rendered":"Hillary Clinton accuses Oversight Republicans of \u2018political theater\u2019 in opening statement"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In her prepared opening statement to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee today, Hillary Clinton suggested the panel\u2019s monthslong Jeffrey Epstein investigation is \u201cpartisan political theater\u201d \u2014 not a quest for truth, transparency or accountability.<\/p>\n

The former secretary of State\u2019s statement slams the committee for not asking President Donald Trump under oath about his appearances in the Epstein files or demanding testimony from Florida and New York prosecutors about Jeffrey Epstein\u2019s infamous \u201csweetheart deal<\/u><\/a>\u201d in 2008 that allowed him to dodge federal sex trafficking charges and plead guilty to lesser state charges.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead, you have compelled me to testify, fully aware that I have no knowledge that would assist your investigation, in order to distract attention from President Trump\u2019s actions and to cover them up despite legitimate calls for answers,\u201d Clinton said, according to her opening statement to the Oversight panel, which she posted on X<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis institutional failure is designed to protect one political party and one public official, rather than to seek truth and justice for the victims and survivors, as well as the public who also want to get to the bottom of this matter,\u201d Clinton continued. \u201cMy heart breaks for the survivors. And I am furious on their behalf.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a sworn declaration to the panel Jan. 13, Hillary Clinton denied any knowledge of the criminal activities of Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, his convicted co-conspirator, and said she did not recall ever meeting Epstein.<\/p>\n

Hillary Clinton is testifying today behind closed doors in Chappaqua, but Oversight Republicans told reporters they plan to release a video of the proceedings as soon as it is approved. Her husband, former Bill Clinton, will testify tomorrow under the same circumstances.<\/p>\n

The Clintons are not accused of any wrongdoing and have denied knowledge of any sex offenses by Epstein and Maxwell, who is now serving a 20-year prison sentence. Bill Clinton has acknowledged flying on Epstein\u2019s plane on several occasions but has said he never visited Epstein\u2019s private island.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In her prepared opening statement to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee today, Hillary Clinton suggested the panel\u2019s monthslong Jeffrey Epstein investigation is \u201cpartisan political theater\u201d \u2014 not a quest for truth, transparency or accountability. The former secretary of State\u2019s statement slams the committee for not asking President Donald Trump under oath about his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19397\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}