Hillary Clinton has accused the Trump administration of a “cover-up” over the release of documents linked to the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, arguing that the pace and handling of disclosures is being used to shift attention away from President Donald Trump as scrutiny intensifies around who appears in the material.
In remarks made during an interview with the BBC in Berlin while she was in Germany for a major international security gathering, Clinton said the administration was failing to deliver full transparency and was delaying the publication of records that Congress has required to be made public. “Get the files out. They are slow-walking it,” she said, calling for the remaining material to be released.
Clinton’s comments come as she and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, are scheduled to give sworn testimony to a congressional committee as part of an investigation into Epstein and the handling of records connected to him. Hillary Clinton is due to testify on 26 February, with Bill Clinton set to appear the following day, after their legal team initially resisted calls for them to sit for depositions.
Clinton said she believed the focus on the Clintons was politically motivated and disproportionate, contending that other witnesses have been treated differently. “I just want it to be fair. I want everybody treated the same way,” she said, adding that other witnesses had been allowed to provide written statements under oath, an option she said she and her husband offered.
She suggested that compelling the Clintons to appear in person was designed to create a spectacle and distract from questions about Trump’s own presence in the Epstein material. “They want to pull us into this… to divert attention from President Trump. This is not complicated,” she said.
In the same BBC interview, Clinton also framed the dispute as one of equal accountability, saying she believed anyone asked to testify should do so. When asked about whether Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly known as Prince Andrew, should appear, she said: “I think everybody should testify who is asked to testify.”
Epstein died in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges. He had previously been convicted in Florida in 2008 of procuring a minor for prostitution. His long-running connections with wealthy and politically powerful figures have remained a source of public controversy, in part because names and contact details in court exhibits and investigative files do not, by themselves, establish wrongdoing. Both Hillary Clinton and Trump have been named in material released so far, and both have denied any involvement in Epstein’s crimes.
Clinton said she had not met Epstein, but had encountered his associate Ghislaine Maxwell. “I don’t recall ever meeting him,” she said, while adding: “I did [meet Maxwell] on a few occasions,” referring to the large number of public events and gatherings connected to the Clinton network where she said Maxwell may have been present. Maxwell was convicted in 2021 and is serving a 20-year federal prison sentence for conspiring with Epstein to sexually abuse minors.
Clinton also sought to distinguish her own contacts from her husband’s travel history, saying Bill Clinton had previously acknowledged taking flights on Epstein’s private plane in connection with charitable work. “We have nothing to hide,” she said. “We have called for the full release of these files repeatedly. We think sunlight is the best disinfectant.”
The renewed political row has been fuelled by a steady stream of document releases and the public debate over redactions and missing material. Clinton said the administration’s approach had fed suspicion that key information was being withheld. “There’s something about this Administration’s attitude towards this… which I think leads us to conclude they have something to hide. We don’t,” she said, referring to herself and her husband.
She also appeared to argue that the administration was encouraging a public fixation on familiar political enemies rather than on what further disclosures might reveal. “Look at this shiny object,” she said, describing what she characterised as an effort to elevate the Clintons as the central focus of the controversy.
Trump rejected Clinton’s claims and said he had been cleared of wrongdoing. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One after her remarks aired, he said: “I’ve been totally exonerated,” adding: “I have nothing to hide… I have nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein.” He also accused Clinton of having “Trump derangement syndrome.”
The White House has also pointed to steps it says demonstrate cooperation with congressional demands. In a statement cited in reporting, it said: “By releasing thousands of pages of documents, co-operating with the House Oversight Committee’s subpoena request, and President Trump recently calling for further investigations into Epstein’s Democrat friends, the Trump Administration has done more for the victims than Democrats ever have.”
The US Department of Justice has similarly pushed back on allegations surrounding Trump, disputing claims it described as politically motivated. In a statement quoted in reporting, it said: “Some docs contain untrue and sensationalist claims against Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election.” It added: “To be clear the claims are unfounded and false and if they have any shred of credibility they certainly would have been weaponised against Trump already.”
The looming depositions of the Clintons are expected to intensify the political stakes further, particularly given the rarity of former presidents being compelled to provide sworn testimony to Congress in modern times. Clinton has said she wants any questioning to be conducted publicly. “We will show up but we think it would be better to have it in public,” she told the BBC, while continuing to argue that other witnesses should be treated in the same way.
