Rep. Lauren Boebert shares photo of Hillary Clinton during deposition, temporarily halting it

That influencer posted it on social media. The New York Times reports that the proceedings were briefly halted when Clinton and her lawyers demanded the deposition be opened to members of the press. The deposition resumed soon after.

In a response to CPR News, Boebert said the photo was taken before the deposition started. She added that she checked with committee staff about using the photo, which was released just before the first break, and that there was no rule directly prohibiting photos.

Clinton had publicly released her opening statement, and had requested the deposition be public, a request Republicans denied. According to committee rules, outside press and photographers are not allowed to take photos of the proceedings.

Clinton, the former Secretary of State, told members of Congress on Thursday that she had no knowledge of Epstein’s or Ghislaine Maxwell’s crimes, starting off two days of depositions that will also include former President Bill Clinton.

“I had no idea about their criminal activities. I do not recall ever encountering Mr. Epstein,” Hillary Clinton said in an opening statement she shared on social media.

The closed-door depositions in the Clintons’ hometown of Chappaqua, a typically quiet hamlet north of New York City, come after months of tense back-and-forth between the former high-powered Democratic couple and the Republican-controlled House Oversight Committee. It will be the first time that a former president has been forced to testify before Congress.

Yet the demand for a reckoning over Epstein’s abuse of underage girls has become a near-unstoppable force on Capitol Hill and beyond.

President Donald Trump, a Republican who has expressed regret that the Clintons are being forced to testify, bowed last year to pressure to release case files on Epstein, who killed himself in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial. The Clintons, too, agreed to testify after their offers of sworn statements were rebuffed by the Oversight panel and its chairman, Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., threatened criminal contempt of Congress charges against them.

“Like every decent person, I have been horrified by what we have learned about their crimes,” Hillary Clinton said in her opening statement.

She has previously said that her husband flew with Epstein for charitable trips but that she did not recall ever meeting Epstein. She had also interacted with Maxwell, Epstein’s former girlfriend and confidant, at conferences hosted by the Clinton Foundation.

Maxwell, a British socialite, also attended the 2010 wedding of their daughter, Chelsea Clinton.

During a break in the deposition after several hours, Democratic lawmakers said that Hillary Clinton had answered every question posed to her.

Bill Clinton, however, has emerged as a top target for Republicans amid the political struggle over who receives the most scrutiny for their ties to Epstein. Several photos of the former president were included in the first tranche of Epstein files released by the Department of Justice in January, including a number of him with women whose faces were redacted. Clinton has not been accused of wrongdoing in his relationship with Epstein.

Comer has also pointed to Hillary Clinton’s work as secretary of state to address sex trafficking as another reason to insist on her deposition. Clinton defended her work to address sex trafficking around the world, saying that it remained important to help the millions of survivors of sex trafficking.

The committee’s investigation has also sought to understand why the Department of Justice under previous presidential administrations did not seek further charges against Epstein following a 2008 arrangement in which he pleaded guilty to state charges in Florida for soliciting prostitution from an underage girl but avoided federal charges.

Hillary Clinton accused Comer of running a one-sided investigation that has failed to hold Trump and other Republican officials to account.

“This institutional failure is designed to protect one political party and one public official,” she said.

Yet conspiracy theories, especially on the right, have swirled for years around the Clintons and their connections to Epstein and Maxwell, who argues she was wrongfully convicted.

Republicans have long wanted to press the Clintons for answers.

Democrats said that the Boebert incident underscored how important it was for there to be a clear public record of the deposition. Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the Oversight panel, said that Hillary Clinton, after the incident, repeated her longstanding demand that the deposition be made public, and Democrats called for a video and transcript of the complete proceedings to be released quickly.

Comer, meanwhile, pledged lengthy days of questioning for both Clintons.

“We have a lot of questions, and the purpose of the whole investigation is to try to understand many things about Epstein,” he told reporters outside the convention center where the depositions were being held. “How did he accumulate so much wealth? How was he able to surround himself with some of the most powerful men in the world?”

Comer described the deposition as a bipartisan effort and said Thursday that it was “very possible” the committee would question Trump’s Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who was Epstein’s neighbor and had several interactions with him. Under questioning from Democrats earlier this month, Lutnick acknowledged that he had met with Epstein twice after the late financier’s 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from a child, reversing his previous claim that he had cut ties with him after 2005.

Democrats, now being led by a new generation of politicians, have prioritized transparency around Epstein over defending the former leaders of their party. Several Democratic lawmakers joined with Republicans on the Oversight panel to advance the contempt of Congress charges against the Clintons last month. Several said they had no relationship with the Clintons and owed no loyalty to them.

Garcia also called on Trump to testify in the investigation. He argued that Bill Clinton’s appearance sets a precedent that should apply to Trump as well.

“Let’s get President Trump in front of our committee to answer the questions that are being asked across this country from survivors,” Garcia said.

Comer previously said that the committee can’t depose Trump because he is a sitting president.

Still, Democrats are also coming off an effort this week to confront Trump about his administration’s handling of the Epstein files by taking women who survived Epstein’s abuse as their guests to Trump’s State of the Union address.

Garcia and others are also challenging the Department of Justice’s assertion that it has met the requirements of a law passed by Congress last year that mandates the release of many of the case files on Epstein.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said his caucus in the coming days would also review unredacted versions of the Epstein case files at a Department of Justice office. Schumer, who demanded that the department release all of the files and preserve all materials, said they will “pull on every thread” until they “reveal this massive cover-up.”

Colorado Public Radio Staff contributed to this report. This story has been updated to include a response from Boebert.