By Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was due to testify behind closed doors on Thursday to a congressional committee investigating the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, as President Donald Trump's fellow Republicans targeted one of his longtime political rivals.
Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, has said she does not ever recall meeting Epstein and has no personal knowledge of his crimes. She has accused the Republican-led
panel of trying to shift focus away from President Donald Trump's ties to Epstein, who died by suicide in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges.
She and her husband, Democratic former President Bill Clinton, initially refused to testify before the House of Representatives Oversight Committee, but relented when lawmakers moved to hold them in contempt of Congress.
Hillary Clinton was due to deliver a closed-door deposition to the committee in Chappaqua, New York, near their main residence. Bill Clinton is scheduled to testify at the same time on Friday.
Before the hearing, Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer of Kentucky, a Republican, denied that the probe was a partisan effort targeting Trump's 2016 presidential rival, noting that several Democrats had pushed for the Clintons to testify.
"No one is accusing at this moment the Clintons of any wrongdoing," Comer said.
He 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 jailed Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell.
Representative Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the committee, told reporters that Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick should also testify. Lutnick has admitted to visiting Epstein's private island years after he says he broke off ties.
A spokesperson for the Clintons did not respond to a request for comment. Comer said transcripts of the Clintons' interviews will be made public.
Hillary 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 Comer, Epstein visited the White House 17 times while Clinton was in office.
Trump also socialized extensively with Epstein in the 1990s and 2000s, before his 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor. Comer said evidence gathered by the panel does not implicate Trump.
Trump's Justice Department has released more than 3 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 Commerce Secretary Howard 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.
(Reporting by Richard Cowan and Nolan D. McCaskill; editing by Andy Sullivan and Alistair Bell)
