Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday denied ever meeting Jeffrey Epstein or knowing anything about his crimes during a more than six-hour, closed-door deposition in front of the House Oversight Committee, which briefly devolved into chaos after a Republican lawmaker leaked a photograph of the proceedings to a right-wing blogger.
Mrs. Clinton arrived to testify under oath at the Center for Performing Arts in Chappaqua, N.Y., defiant about being compelled to participate in the panel’s investigation into Mr. Epstein, the convicted sex offender who died in prison in 2019.
Both she and former President Bill Clinton, who is slated to testify on Friday, had battled with Representative James R. Comer of Kentucky, the Republican chairman, for months over subpoenas they called invalid, unenforceable and politically motivated.
Things only grew tenser about an hour into the proceedings, when Mrs. Clinton abruptly halted the session after learning that a Republican member of the committee, Representative Lauren Boebert of Colorado, had leaked an image from inside the room, which a right-wing podcaster, Benny Johnson, immediately posted on social media.
In a lengthy opening statement her aides distributed in advance, Mrs. Clinton accused House Republicans of using her as a prop in “partisan political theater” and excoriated their investigation as “designed to protect one political party and one public official, rather than to seek truth and justice for the victims and survivors.”
“You have compelled me to testify, fully aware that I have no knowledge that would assist your investigation, in order to distract attention from President Trump’s actions and to cover them up despite legitimate calls for answers,” she said.
She added: “You have made little effort to call the people who show up most prominently in the Epstein files,” noting that not a single Republican had attended a closed-door session last week in Ohio to depose Leslie Wexner, the retail billionaire and prolific G.O.P. donor who helped Mr. Epstein build his wealth.
In a day’s worth of questioning that she later called “repetitive” and unproductive, Mrs. Clinton told the committee that she did not recall ever encountering Mr. Epstein and “never flew on his plane or visited his island, homes or offices.”
“I don’t know how many times I had to say I did not know Jeffrey Epstein,” she told reporters after the session had ended. “It’s on the record numerous times.”
The deposition briefly went off the rails when, as Republicans questioned her, Mr. Johnson’s post of the photograph showing Mrs. Clinton’s testifying while wearing a weary expression prompted an eruption in the room. Her lawyers vociferously objected and called for journalists to be allowed inside to document the proceedings. House Democrats noted that Republicans had refused to grant the Clintons’ request for a public hearing.
“We are sitting through an incredibly unserious clown show of a deposition,” Representative Yassamin Ansari, Democrat of Arizona, said, claiming Republicans were “more concerned with getting their photo op” than with holding anyone accountable.
Representative Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the committee, said Republicans had broken their own rules by releasing images from inside the room and said it was “gracious” of Mrs. Clinton to agree to continue participating at all.
The committee’s rules bar Mr. Comer or any Republican from releasing testimony, transcripts or recordings of a deposition without consulting with the top Democrat on the committee. In response to the leak, Mr. Garcia said that he was demanding that Mr. Comer release the unedited transcript of the deposition within 24 hours of its conclusion.
The leak of the photograph, Mrs. Clinton later told reporters, was “very upsetting, because it suggested that they might violate other of our agreements.”
Still, the deposition resumed about 30 minutes later. Throughout the day, Democrats participating in the proceedings said they were an embarrassment to Republicans, turning up nothing of significance.
“Secretary Clinton is puzzled as to why she’s here answering questions,” said Representative Suhas Subramanyam, Democrat of Virginia. “I’m trying to figure out what else to ask her. She doesn’t know much.”
He said that Republicans spent hours grilling her about Mr. Epstein’s involvement in raising money for the Clinton Global Initiative. But Mrs. Clinton was a senator during the years when her husband was starting his foundation. And she told the committee she had not been involved.
“We are talking to the wrong person today,” Mr. Subramanyam said. “Who we should be talking to instead is people who are actually mentioned in the files.”
At one point, Representative Nancy Mace, Republican of South Carolina, pressed Mrs. Clinton about her husband’s friendship with Mr. Epstein, and asked whether she had any “feelings” about photographs that showed Mr. Clinton receiving a back rub from a young woman, or otherwise associating with Mr. Epstein.
Mrs. Clinton responded coolly that she was not there to discuss her feelings. The exchange was reported earlier by CNN.
Afterward, Mrs. Clinton noted that the questions from Republicans had veered far from anything having to do with Mr. Epstein. She said that she was asked about U.F.O.s and that one member posed a series of questions related to Pizzagate, a false story circulated by conspiracy theorists that Democratic operatives were running a child sex-trafficking ring out of a pizza restaurant in Washington, D.C.
Mr. Clinton’s scheduled deposition on Friday will be the first time a former president has been compelled against his will to testify before a congressional committee.
Speaking to reporters ahead of the deposition, Mr. Comer appeared defensive about his decision to investigate Mrs. Clinton, but promised that both sessions would be long and comprehensive.
He noted that some Democrats on the committee had voted to hold both Clintons in contempt of Congress if they did not appear to testify. He also reiterated his claim that Mrs. Clinton was of interest to the committee because Ghislaine Maxwell, Mr. Epstein’s longtime companion, attended her daughter Chelsea Clinton’s wedding.
Mr. Subramanyam said that during the deposition, the former secretary of state explained that Ms. Maxwell had been “a guest of a guest at the wedding,” adding that Mrs. Clinton “didn’t really know or talk to her in any way.”
Some Democrats on the Oversight Committee were careful not to criticize Republicans on the panel for investigating the Clintons, saying that they were happy to question to anyone who might have knowledge of Mr. Epstein’s and Ms. Maxwell’s crimes.
Other Democrats expressed outrage.
“There is no indication — zero, zip, zilch, nada — that Secretary Clinton had any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes,” said Representative James R. Walkinshaw, Democrat of Virginia. “My fear is we’re here today as part of a political exercise, part of a long-running fever dream where Republicans want to lock up Secretary Clinton.”
Annie Karni is a congressional correspondent for The Times.
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