Lawrence: Hillary Clinton didn't know Epstein. Melania Trump did. When will Melania Trump testify?

Well, there is exactly one first lady in history who met sex trafficker and raper of children and good friend of Donald Trump, Jeffrey Epstein. And today, Republicans on the House Oversight Committee decided to question a former first lady who never met Jeffrey Epstein instead of the first lady currently occupying the White House who was friends with Jeffrey Epstein and his convicted sex trafficking co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell.

Donald Trump's third wife was friends with both of them. The Epstein files contain emails from Melania Trump to Ghislaine Maxwell complimenting Ghislaine Maxwell. The Epstein files contain no communication at all between Hillary Clinton and Jeffrey Epstein or Gillian Maxwell. But Republicans on the committee decided they wanted to subpoena Hillary Clinton. Where is their subpoena for Melania Trump, who actually

knew Jeffrey Epstein and Gillian Maxwell? Why aren't they asking Melania Trump, did Donald Trump introduce you to Jeffrey Epstein, or did Jeffrey Epstein introduce you to Donald Trump? Why aren't they asking Melania Trump what she knew about Jeffrey Epstein? The Epstein files show the Palm Beach police chief saying that Donald Trump told him in 2006, quote,

thank goodness you're stopping him. Everyone has known he's been doing this. If true, that would mean that Donald Trump's wife at that time, Melania Trump, knew he was doing this. She would be included in Donald Trump's term, everyone. Melania Trump might have no useful information to provide to the committee, but she did meet Jeffrey Epstein. She was friends

with Jeffrey Epstein. She was friends with Gillian Maxwell. And it is possible that she knew something, according to her husband, everyone knew. Hillary Clinton, in a written opening statement to the committee today, made the point that not everyone who has been subpoenaed by the committee has been actually required to testify to the committee. The former Secretary of State, who was also a lawyer and worked on the Congressional Committee investigation of corrupt Republican President Richard Nixon at the beginning of her career,

reminded the committee, quote, 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 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. Hillary Clinton should have been offered exactly the same option. Secretary Clinton did provide the committee with a statement stating she had no information to provide, but the Republicans on the committee refused to accept that statement from her, the same kind of statement they accepted from other former cabinet officials.

Secretary Clinton's opening statement was a masterful and thorough condemnation of the Republicans on the committee. She said, quote, 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. The institutional failure is designed to protect one political party and one public official. Secretary Clinton identified that public official by name repeatedly in her opening statement,

saying, 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. Ask him directly under oath about the tens of thousands of times he shows up in the Epstein files. Ask him directly under oath. That's right.

Ask Donald Trump directly under oath about the accusation in the Epstein files that he assaulted and raped a child. Secretary Clinton, as a former senator, knows how congressional committees should do their work. She told the Republicans on the committee, quote, a committee run by elected officials

with a commitment to transparency would ensure the full release of all the files. It would get to the bottom of reports that DOJ withheld FBI interviews in which a survivor accuses President Trump of heinous crimes.

It would subpoena anyone who asked on which night there would be the wildest party on Epstein Island. The Epstein files revealed that Elon Musk asked Jeffrey Epstein that question. When are the Republicans going to subpoena Elon Musk and ask him if he ever went to the wildest party on Epstein Island. And ask him under oath, make him answer that question under oath. And Secretary Clinton spoke authoritatively on the larger issue of sex trafficking, including

the sex trafficking of children. She said, quote, if you are new to this issue, let me tell you, Jeffrey Epstein was a heinous individual, but he's far from alone. This is not a one-off tabloid sensation or a political scandal. It's 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. Let's hear from Melania Trump about what she has done in her position as First Lady about sex trafficking or anything else. Hillary Clinton described what she did as Secretary of State.

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

by 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. Infuriatingly, the Trump administration gutted the trafficking in persons office at the State Department, cutting more than 70% of the career civil and foreign service experts who worked so hard to prevent trafficking crimes.

The message from the Trump administration to the American people and the world could not be clearer. Combating human trafficking is no longer an American priority under the Trump White House. That is a tragedy. It's a scandal. It deserves vigorous investigation and oversight.

A committee endeavoring to stop human trafficking would seek to understand what specific steps are needed to fix a system that allowed Epstein to get away with his crimes in 2008. It would demand that Secretary Rubio and Attorney General Bondi testify

about why this administration is abandoning survivors and playing into the hands of traffickers. It would put forth legislation to provide more resources and force this administration to act. But that's not happening. Donald Trump, who was called a pedophile protector

by an auto worker at a Ford factory, is running an administration that has eliminated the jobs of most of the people who were working every day to prevent sex trafficking crimes. The people who were working to stop the next Jeffrey Epstein, Donald Trump fired them. Even though we all know that in Washington, the rules don't apply to Republicans, Republicans

continue to find ways to shock by breaking rules that have never been broken before. Today it was Republican Lauren Boebert's turn to do something that has never been done before and is and always has been completely against the rules. Lauren Boebert took a photograph of Secretary Clinton during the deposition and immediately released it publicly to a Trump-supporting media clown. Secretary Clinton had every right, as soon as that happened, to leave the deposition,

to just walk out. The Republicans would have no ability at all to prevent Secretary Clinton from leaving the deposition after one of their members violated the rules of that deposition and the rules of every congressional committee procedure in the history of Congress. Secretary Clinton, upon learning of the violation, decided not to leave, but instead told the chairman that the news media should now be allowed in the room to cover her testimony

now that the Republicans have broken the seal of that room. After half an hour, Secretary Clinton decided to resume her testimony and further humiliate the Republicans who were afraid to question the two people who were friends of Jeffrey Epstein, Donald and Melania Trump. Secretary Clinton spoke to reporters after the deposition, which was held near her home in Chappaqua, New York.

I don't know how many times I had to say I did not know Jeffrey Hepstein. I never went to his island. I never went to his homes. I never went to his offices. So it's on the record numerous times. It then got, at the end, quite unusual, because I started being asked about UFOs and a series of questions about Pizzagate, one of the most vile, bogus conspiracy theories that was propagated on the Internet, that was serving as a basis of a members questions to me

And here's what some of the Democrats in the deposition had to say

One of the things that's been confirmed today is that in addition to having no relationship with Jeffrey Epstein Secretary Clinton had has no relationship with Gillian Maxwell. But there are important questions we should be asking the Trump administration about Gillian Maxwell. And I hope that our Republican colleagues will join us in asking these questions.

Why is it that Donald Trump has refused to rule out the pardon, the clemency, that Glenn Maxwell is campaigning for? House Republicans need to get serious about this investigation. I understand now fully why Secretary Clinton wanted to make this deposition in her hearing public, because the reality is we are talking to the wrong person today. Who we should be talking to instead of people who are actually mentioned in the files, people who have made misleading statements about their relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.

We should depose the person that is mentioned in the Epstein files almost We should depose the person that is mentioned in the Epstein files almost more than any other person next to Galene Maxwell and that's Donald Trump.