Hillary Clinton told lawmakers during a deposition Thursday their subpoena for her testimony about Jeffrey Epstein is a distraction from President Donald Trump’s relationship with the moneyman and sex predator.

In an opening statement she posted online, Clinton said she had no information about Epstein’s crimes and didn’t recall ever meeting him.

Clinton accused Republicans of compelling her testimony “fully aware that I have no knowledge that would assist your investigation, in order to distract from President Trump’s actions and to cover them up despite legitimate calls for answers.”

Like former President Bill Clinton, Trump socialized with Epstein, and his name appears throughout the Justice Department’s files. This week, Democrats have pointed to evidence that some FBI files potentially recounting an accusation against Trump appear to be missing from a public database, contrary to a disclosure law.

Despite not having her own direct connection to Epstein, Clinton faced hours of questions from members of the House Oversight Committee. She described the questioning as repetitious, and, at times, ridiculous.

“I don’t know how many times I had to say I did not know Jeffrey Epstein. I never went to his island, I never went to his home, I never went to his offices,” Clinton told reporters.

“It then got, at the end, quite unusual, because 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, that was serving as the basis of a member’s questions to me,” Clinton said.

“Pizzagate,” a predecessor of the bigger QAnon conspiracy theory, posited that top Democratic officials ran a child sex trafficking ring out of a pizza restaurant in Northwest Washington ― imaginary crimes with some similarities to the real-life crimes perpetrated by Epstein.

Oversight Committee lawmakers traveled to New York for depositions on Thursday and Friday with both Clintons. Committee chair James Comer (R-Ky.) said at the outset he knew Hillary Clinton’s deposition would be long and that he expected her husband’s to be “even longer.”

After the hearing, Comer said Clinton, a former first lady, U.S. senator and secretary of state, answered most of lawmakers’ questions and that the meeting was “productive.” He said a video of the interview could be released within 24 hours.

The deposition paused at one point in the afternoon after committee member Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) sent photos to right-wing influencer Benny Johnson of Clinton testifying. Boebert did this contrary to committee rules. It was weird — no other lawmaker has ever leaked a picture from a closed deposition in recent years.

“We had a bit of a challenge in the beginning, because we agreed upon rules based on the fact it was going to be a closed hearing at their demand, and one of the members violated that rule, which was very upsetting,” Clinton said.

The Clintons have said they would prefer to testify in public, but Comer insisted on the closed-door deposition, saying the committee could hold a public hearing later. But Clinton said Thursday she didn’t want to go through it all again.

Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) told reporters Clinton had answered the committee’s questions and demonstrated she had no relationship with Epstein or knowledge of his crimes. He said the committee should instead focus on the Trump administration withholding FBI files that might detail sexual misconduct by Trump against a minor in the early 1980s.

“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 files that have been apparently either removed or discarded, is incredibly concerning, and so we’re calling on Attorney General Pam Bondi to immediately release those files,” Garcia said.

The Justice Department said Wednesday it was “currently reviewing” whether it had more documents to release, and Comer said the committee’s Republicans were also looking into it.

Garcia also said the subpoenas to the Clintons “set a new precedent about talking to presidents and former presidents” and that Republicans should demand that Trump testify.

The Oversight Committee approved subpoenas for the Clintons at the same time it approved a subpoena demanding the Trump administration fork over its investigative files on Epstein, who died in 2019 while facing federal charges for sex trafficking minors.

The votes were bipartisan, and when the Clintons initially resisted sitting for depositions, Democrats joined Republicans in advancing a contempt resolution that could have resulted in criminal charges.

“We’re not accusing Hillary Clinton of wrongdoing,” Comer said before the hearing. “We know that Jeffrey Epstein said many times in emails that he was the first person to raise money for the Clinton Initiative, the Clinton Foundation, that he solicited money at some of his properties for the Clinton Foundation.”

One thing Comer wanted to know, he said, was why Maxwell had been a guest at Chelsea Clinton’s wedding in 2010. After the deposition, a reporter put the question to the former first lady.

“She came as the plus one, the guest of someone who was invited,” Clinton said. And she left it at that.

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