Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testified Thursday before the House Oversight Committee in New York as part of a congressional investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The closed-door deposition took place in Chappaqua, New York, with former President Bill Clinton scheduled to testify Friday.

The depositions come after months of negotiations between the Clintons and the Republican-controlled House Oversight Committee. The couple initially offered to provide sworn statements but ultimately agreed to testify after committee Chairman James Comer threatened criminal contempt of Congress charges.

The committee's investigation seeks to understand why the Department of Justice under previous administrations did not pursue additional charges against Epstein following a 2008 plea agreement. Under that arrangement, Epstein pleaded guilty to state charges in Florida for soliciting prostitution from an underage girl but avoided federal charges. Epstein died by suicide in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.

In a recent BBC interview, Hillary Clinton said she did not recall meeting Epstein but had interacted with his associate Ghislaine Maxwell at Clinton Foundation conferences. She noted that her husband had flown with Epstein for charitable trips and said their knowledge of Epstein's activities was "very limited and totally unrelated to their behavior or their crimes."

Bill Clinton has emerged as a particular focus for Republicans, with several photos of the former president included in Epstein files released by the Department of Justice in January. Clinton has not been accused of wrongdoing in relation to Epstein. Committee Republicans have also cited Hillary Clinton's work as secretary of state addressing sex trafficking as grounds for her testimony.

The investigation has received bipartisan support, with several Democratic lawmakers joining Republicans to advance contempt charges against the Clintons last month. Representative Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the Oversight panel, said both Republican and Democratic administrations "have failed survivors in not getting more information out to the public."