Segments Record

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SPEAKER_00

962.38

1300.08

Do you have any other questions before we begin? Yes, I have an opening statement that I would like to deliver before we begin Mr. Chairman ranking member members of the committee as a former United States senator senator I have respect for legislative oversight and I expect its exercise as do the American people to be principled and fearless in pursuit of truth and accountability as We all know however too often Congressional investigations are partisan political theater, which is an abdication of duty and an insult to the American people This committee justified its subpoena to me based on its assumption that I have information regarding the investigations Into the criminal activities of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell Let me be as clear as I can. I do not as I stated in my sworn declaration on January 13th I had no idea about their criminal activities. I do not recall ever Encountering mr. Epstein. I never flew on his plane or visited his island homes or offices I have nothing to add to that Like every decent person. I've been horrified by what we have learned about their crimes It's unfathomable that mr. Epstein initially got a slap on the wrist in 2008 which allowed him to continue his predatory practices for another decade Mr. Chairman your investigation is supposed to be assessing the federal government's handling of the investigations and prosecutions of Epstein and his crimes You subpoenaed eight law enforcement Officials all of whom ran the Department of Justice or directed the FBI when Epstein's crimes were investigated and prosecuted of those eight only only one appeared before the committee. Five of the six former attorneys general were allowed to submit brief statements stating they had no information to provide. You have held zero public hearings, refused to allow the media to attend them, including today, despite espousing the need for transparency on dozens of occasions. You have made little effort to call the people who show up most prominently in the Epstein files. And when you did, not a single Republican member showed up for Les Wexner's deposition. This institutional failure is designed to protect one political party and one public official, rather than to seek truth and justice for the victims and survivors, as well as inform the public who want to get to the bottom of this matter. My heart breaks for the survivors, and I am furious on their behalf. I have spent my life advocating for women and girls. I have worked hard to stop the terrible abuses so many women and girls face here and around the world, including human trafficking, forced labor, domestic violence, and sexual slavery. For too long, these have been largely invisible crimes or not treated as crimes at all. But the survivors are real and they are entitled to justice. In Southeast Asia, I met girls as young as 12 years old who had been forced into prostitution and raped repeatedly. Some were dying of AIDS. In Eastern Europe, I met mothers who told me how they lost their daughters to trafficking and did not know where to turn. In settings around the world, I met survivors trying to rebuild their lives and help rescue others with little support from people, in power, who too often turned a blind eye and a cold shoulder. If you are new to this issue, let me tell you, Jeffrey Epstein was a heinous individual, but he is far from alone. This is not a one-off tabloid sensation or political scandal. It is a global scourge with an unimaginable human toll. My work combating sex trafficking goes back to my days as First Lady. I worked to pass the first federal legislation against trafficking and was proud that my husband signed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, which increased support for survivors and gave prosecutors better tools for going after traffickers. As Secretary of State, I appointed a former federal prosecutor, Lucy DeBaca, to ramp up our global anti-trafficking efforts. I oversaw nearly 170 anti-trafficking programs in 70 nations and directly pressed foreign leaders to crack down on trafficking networks in their countries. Every year, we published a global report to shine a light on abuses. The findings of those reports triggered sanctions on countries failing to make progress, so they became a powerful diplomatic tool to drive concrete action. I insisted that the United States be included in the report for the first time ever in 2011, because we must hold ourselves not just to the same standard as the rest of the world, but to an even higher one. Sex trafficking and modern slavery should have no place in America. None.