Hillary Clinton and her husband Bill austerely complied with a House Oversight Committee subpoena in order to explain their ties to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. Yet Hillary’s testimony today didn’t exactly go to plan.
Proceedings were halted after a breach of the hearing’s protocols – by a member of the committee. Congresswoman Lauren Boebert took two surreptitious photos of the closed-door hearing… and sent them to conservative influencer Benny Johnson. Johnson, in turn, plastered his watermark all over them and posted them on X.
The Clintons had agreed to testify in a gambit to demonstrate that presidents and cabinet secretaries are not above congressional scrutiny – to put pressure on President Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick – and were presumably hoping to take advantage of the spectacle of live, public hearings. The Republican-led committee denied them the satisfaction, insisting on closed-door depositions instead, hosted somewhat ironically at the Chappaqua Performing Arts Center in New York State.
In her opening statement, Hillary declared she did “not recall ever encountering Mr. Epstein” and said she was “horrified” by his crimes. When asked why Ghislaine Maxwell had attended Chelsea Clinton’s wedding, Hillary explained that Ghislaine had been brought as a plus-one. Former president Bill Clinton will testify tomorrow – and, Cockburn would imagine, faces a rougher ride than his wife. Expect questions about that odd dress painting and the hot-tub pic…
“This is insane,” Johnson tweeted of today’s delay. “The deposition is being filmed. Hillary wanted it to be done LIVE on TV. The entire deposition will be released soon. Rep. Boebert gave me permission to post photo with credit.”
“Benny did nothing wrong,” Boebert posted in a quote-tweet. “Proceeding with deposition.” Words with the kind of gravitas Cockburn has come to expect from the 39-year-old grandmother and inamorata of Kid Rock.
Comments