Hillary Clinton has blasted a Republican-led committee of Congress for summoning her to answer questions about Jeffrey Epstein while failing to push US President Donald Trump to do the same thing.
The former first lady took part in a closed-door deposition before Congress's House Oversight Committee a day ahead of her husband, Bill Clinton.
In her opening statement, which she published online, she said:
"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's actions and cover them up despite legitimate calls for answers."
The committee is investigating the US government's handling of the Epstein case, including a plea deal with prosecutors that let him off federal sex-trafficking charges in 2008.
The former president appears in photos and other documents released by the Department of Justice (DOJ), but Ms Clinton says she does not remember even meeting the late sex offender.
The hearing in New York lasted close to eight hours. Afterwards, Ms Clinton said she had answered every question as best she could.
"I don't know how many times I had to say I did not know Jeffrey Epstein," she told media outside.
"I never went to his island. I never went to his homes. I never went to his offices," she said. Her husband's association with Epstein ended "several years before anything about Epstein's criminal activities came to light".
Ms Clinton said Republicans' questioning took an "unusual" turn towards the end of the hearing.
"I started being asked about UFOs and a series of questions about Pizzagate, one of the most vile, bogus conspiracy theories that was propagated on the internet."
'I'm not going to do it again'
The Clintons requested that their depositions be open to the media, but their request was denied.
After the hearing, Ms Clinton said the committee had made the wrong decision, but she would not reappear for a public hearing.
"I'm not going to do it again," she said. "They had a chance to do it in public, and I wish they had done it in public."
In her opening statement, Ms Clinton criticised the committee for holding no public hearings "despite espousing the need for transparency".
She also said it had made "little effort to call the people who show up most prominently in the Epstein files".
Only one of the law enforcement officials involved in the Epstein investigation and his "sweetheart" plea deal had appeared before the committee, she said.
She also pointed out that no Republicans showed up for the deposition of billionaire Republican Party donor Les Wexner last week.
Mr Wexner was named as one of Epstein's co-conspirators in a 2019 FBI document, but was never charged and has denied wrongdoing. A video clip from his deposition went viral after his lawyer was heard telling Mr Wexner he would "f***ing kill" him if he answered a question with more than five words.
Ms Clinton said the committee's "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".
Trump questioned 'every day'
At a media conference before the hearing, committee chairman James Comer denied the Clintons were being treated unfairly.
"They've never answered questions, unlike President Trump, who gets questioned every day by just about every one of you about his knowledge or involvement with Epstein," Mr Comer told the assembled press.
Warning it would be a "long deposition", he said the committee had many questions for Ms Clinton, including how Epstein "was able to surround himself with some of the most powerful men in the world".
"No-one's accusing, at this moment, the Clintons of any wrongdoing. They're going to have due process," Mr Comer said.
Democrats, who are in the minority on the committee, now want Mr Trump to follow Ms Clinton's "precedent" and be summoned for questioning.
"We should depose the person who is mentioned in the Epstein files almost more than any other person next to Ghislaine Maxwell, and that is Donald Trump," the committee's lead Democrat, Robert Garcia, said.
'Missing' files?
The committee's Democrats were also set to investigate documents that appeared to be missing from the files released by the DOJ, he said.
NPR this week reported that the department had withheld some files related to decades-old allegations that Mr Trump sexually abused a minor. The withheld files appeared to include more than 50 pages of FBI interviews, the outlet reported.
"We want to understand right now where the missing FBI files are," committee Democrat James Walkinshaw said.
"These are files that accuse the president of the United States about serious, serious accusations around sexual abuse and the fact that they're not in the [released] files and have been apparently either removed or discarded is incredibly concerning."
The department previously said it had released all files required under legislation passed by Congress, including some containing "untrue and sensationalist claims" about Mr Trump.
The president has repeatedly said he cut off his friendship with Epstein long before he was charged for sex offences, and he did not know about or have any involvement with his crimes.
Being named in the Epstein files does not imply wrongdoing, and many of the mentions of Mr Trump are in media reports or innocuous public documents.
Photo forces pause
The Clintons had initially refused to appear before the committee, but agreed after being threatened with a contempt of Congress finding, which can lead to criminal charges.
The deposition was briefly paused after a photo of Ms Clinton giving evidence was posted on X.
The photo was shared by conservative podcaster Benny Johnson, who said it was provided by Republican committee member Lauren Boebert.
The BBC reported Ms Boebert told media outside the hearing: "I really admired her blue suit, so wanted to capture that for everyone."
During a break in the deposition, Mr Garcia said the photo leak represented "Republicans breaking their own committee rules".
A video and transcript would be released when the deposition was over, Mr Comer said. Mr Garcia said Democrats were demanding the transcript be released, unedited, within 24 hours.
