Former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton has said she was confident that her husband, former US president Bill Clinton, knew nothing of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's crimes when they were still in contact.
"I think the chronology of the connection that he had with Epstein ended years, several years, before anything about Epstein's criminal activities came to light," Mrs Clinton said.
She was speaking after she appeared before a Republican-led panel probing the disgraced financier. She described the deposition as a "long and very repetitive".
Asked if she was confident that her husband did not know of Epstein's abuse of minors or any other crimes, Mrs Clinton said "I am".
She said that she answered every one of the questions put to her "as fully as I could" and that she knew Ghislaine Maxwell, an associate of Epstein, casually as an acquaintance.
During her appearing before the committee, Mrs Clinton said that she had no information about the criminal activities of Epstein and urged legislators to ask President Donald Trump about his own links to him.
"I had no idea about their criminal activities. I do not recall ever encountering Mr Epstein," the former US secretary of state and ex-first lady said in an opening statement she shared on social media.
Watch: Hillary Clinton confident husband knew nothing of Epstein's crimes
The closed-door depositions to legislators from the House of Representatives is being held in the Clintons' home town of Chappaqua in upstate New York. It follows months of tense back-and-forth between the former high-powered Democratic couple and the Republican-controlled House Oversight Committee.
The Clintons had initially rejected subpoenas ordering them to testify in the panel's probe, but the couple agreed to do so after House Republicans threatened to hold them in contempt of Congress.
Mrs Clinton has accused the Republican-led panel of trying "distract attention" from Mr Trump's ties to Epstein, who died by suicide in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges.
The hearing was paused briefly after a photo of her seated at a table was leaked to social media, in a violation of committee rules, according to Clinton adviser Nick Merrill.
Conservative influencer Benny Johnson, who published the photo, said it was taken by Republican Representative Lauren Boebert.
Mr Clinton is scheduled to testify tomorrow. It will be the first time that a former president has been forced to give evidence before Congress.
James Comer, a Republican who chairs the committee that will also grill Mr Clinton tomorrow, said: "the purpose of the whole investigation is to try to understand many things about Epstein".
"There were a lot of questions that we asked that we weren't satisfied with the answers that we that we got," he added after the deposition concluded.
He said that Mrs Clinton's closed-door deposition was "productive".
Mr Comer noted that she often responded, "you'll have to ask my husband," as members pressed her on the Clinton Global Initiative and past associations involving Epstein.
Mr Comer said the committee will release the full video and transcript "as quickly as we can," adding that Mrs Clinton's final comments about Epstein would likely draw attention once made public.
She challenged the panel saying "if this committee is serious about learning the truth about Epstein's trafficking crimes...it would ask (Trump) directly under oath about the tens of thousands of times he shows up in the Epstein files."
Before the hearing, Mr Comer said the committee would seek to find out about any interactions she might have had with Epstein, his involvement with the Clintons' charitable work, and any relationship she may have had with Ghislaine Maxwell.
Representative Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the committee, told reporters that Mr Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick should also testify.
Mr Lutnick has admitted to visiting Epstein's private island years after he says he broke off ties.
Mrs Clinton's ties to Epstein are unclear.
Bill Clinton flew on Epstein's plane several times in the early 2000s after he left office. He has denied wrongdoing and expressed regret for his association.
According to Mr Comer, Epstein visited the White House 17 times while Mr Clinton was in office.
Mr Trump also socialised extensively with Epstein in the 1990s and 2000s, before his 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor. Mr Comer said evidence gathered by the panel does not implicate Mr Trump.
Mr Trump's Justice Department has released more than three million pages of Epstein-related documents over the past several months to comply with a law passed by Congress.
The Justice Department sought to draw attention to photos of Bill Clinton, but the documents also have revealed Epstein's ties to a long list of business and political leaders, including Mr Lutnick and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
Overseas, they have prompted criminal investigations of Britain's Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the former Duke of York, and other prominent figures.
Mrs Clinton told the BBC last week that she and her husband "have nothing to hide".
She said that she met Maxwell "on a few occasions", but never had any meaningful interactions with the late financier.
Republicans are trying to deflect attention away from President Trump by having them testify, she said.
"Look at this shiny object. We're going to have the Clintons, even Hillary Clinton, who never met the guy."
Maxwell is the only person who has been convicted of a crime in connection with Epstein.
The former socialite is serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking.
She appeared via videolink before the committee earlier this month, but refused to answer questions, invoking her Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate herself.
Maxwell's lawyer, David Markus, said that she would be prepared to speak publicly if granted clemency by Mr Trump.
Mr Markus also said that the president and Mr Clinton are "innocent of any wrongdoing".
"Ms Maxwell alone can explain why and the public is entitled to that explanation," he added.
