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FORMER US SECRETARY of state Hillary Clinton has accused Donald Trump of orchestrating a “cover-up” over files related to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“Get the files out. They are slow-walking it,” she said in an interview with the BBC in Berlin.
Both Hillary and her husband Bill Clinton are due to testify before a US Congressional committee on what they know in relation to Epstein, who died from what was determined to be suicide while in custody in 2019.
Bill Clinton features several times in the files that have been released by the US Justice Department on Epstein, including photographs of the two men together on separate occasions. No evidence has come to light implicating either Clinton in criminal activity.
The couple have been ordered to give closed-door depositions before the House Oversight Committee, which is probing the deceased financier’s connections to powerful figures and how information about his crimes was handled.
However, both have called for their testimony to be held in public.
“We will show up, but we think it would be better to have it in public,” Hillary Clinton told the BBC.
“I just want it to be fair. I want everybody treated the same way. That’s not true for my husband and me,” she said.
Other witnesses were asked to testify. They gave written statements under oath. We offered that. They want to pull us. Why do they want to pull us into this? To divert attention from President Trump. This is not complicated.
The former presidential candidate, who ran against Trump in the 2016 US election, said she and her husband “have nothing to hide. We have called for the full release of these files repeatedly.”
The Department of Justice has said it has no more files to release, though lawmakers have criticised it for not publishing internal government memos, notes and emails on Epstein.
Clinton said the Republicans probing her are trying to deflect attention away from Trump, whose name is also mentioned in the files many times.
“Look at this shiny object. We’re going to have the Clintons, even Hillary Clinton, who never met the guy,” she said.
Trump denies any wrongdoing. Being mentioned in the files is not proof of having committed a crime.
Bill Clinton has acknowledged flying on Epstein’s plane in the early 2000s for Clinton Foundation-related humanitarian work, but the former president has insisted he never visited Epstein’s private island.
Hillary Clinton has said she had no meaningful interactions with Epstein, never flew on his plane and never visited his island.
“We have no links,” she told the BBC.
“We have a very clear record that we’ve been willing to talk about, which my husband has said, he took some rides on the airplane for his charitable work. I don’t recall ever meeting [Epstein].”
She said she had met Ghislaine Maxwell, an Epstein associate who was convicted of conspiring with him to sexually abuse minors, “on a few occasions.”
“Thousands of people go to the Clinton Global Initiative,” she said, referring to an annual event held by the couple’s foundation.
Responding to Clinton’s comment that the congressional testimony was a bid to create a distraction, Trump denied it, telling reporters last night he had been “totally exonerated.”
Hillary Clinton will appear for her deposition on 26 February, while Bill Clinton will appear on 27 February.
With reporting from © AFP 2026
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