Is this deposition a political stunt?published at 17:55 GMT
17:55 GMT
Nada Tawfik
Reporting from Chappaqua, New York
Image source, Nada Tawfik/BBC News
We are outside the Chappaqua Performing Arts Center waiting for updates from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s closed door deposition.
Republicans on the committee have said they will come out every hour to share what they have learned and have insisted the deposition today isn’t a political stunt.
But is it?
On the one hand, Democrats joined Republicans to threaten the Clintons with contempt of Congress if they didn’t appear. But today, the committee’s Democrats emphasised that there’s no indication that Hillary Clinton had any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes and that President Trump, who is named far more in the Epstein files, should now also answer questions under oath.
James Walkinshaw, one of the Democrats who spoke here, slammed today’s deposition as a political exercise and part of a long-running fever dream to lock up the Clintons.
Democrats are now betting that by setting this example with the Clintons, it will actually increase pressure on President Trump.
No doubt, the public will be dissecting the Clintons’ responses and their credibility.