Clinton condemns Trump 'cover-up'

Hillary Clinton delivered a withering rebuke to a congressional committee investigating her supposed links to Jeffrey Epstein yesterday, accusing its Republican members of embarking on a "fishing expedition" intended to cover up and deflect attention from the actions of Donald Trump.

- Robert Tait

In a furious opening statement at the start of her testimony to the House of Representatives' oversight committee, the former secretary of state suggested the event was "partisan political theatre" and "an insult to the American people" while repeating her insistence that she had never met Epstein, the disgraced financier and convicted sex trafficker who died in 2019.

According to remarks she shared during the closed-door testimony, 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 to cover them up despite legitimate calls for answers.”

The hearing is being held at an arts centre near the couple’s home in Chappaqua in upstate New York.

The Clintons agreed to appear reluctantly in response to a subpoena from the committee’s Republican chair, James Comer, after being threatened with contempt of Congress charges.

In her opening statement Clinton excoriated the proceedings as “designed to protect one political party and one public official, rather than to seek truth and justice for the victims and survivors”.