WASHINGTON

Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton challenged Republicans on the House Oversight Committee on Thursday to conduct a public hearing as part of a probe into the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

"For six months, we engaged Republicans on the Oversight Committee in good faith.

"We told them what we know, under oath. They ignored all of it. They moved the goalposts and turned accountability into an exercise in distraction," Clinton said on the US social media company X’s platform.

She directly challenged Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer to bring the dispute into the open.

"So let’s stop the games. If you want this fight, @RepJamesComer, let’s have it—in public. You love to talk about transparency. There’s nothing more transparent than a public hearing, cameras on. We will be there," she said.

Earlier this week, the Clintons agreed to testify before the committee in its investigation, with Hillary Clinton scheduled to appear for a closed-door deposition on Feb. 26 and former President Bill Clinton the following day.

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that it was a “shame” that the Clintons are being forced to testify.

“It bothers me that somebody’s going after Bill Clinton,” he told NBC News.

During a White House briefing Thursday, spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt was asked to clarify the president’s remarks and explain why he appeared troubled by the investigation.

"Look, I think that the president has respect for the former president of the United States, Bill Clinton,” she said.

“He said yesterday himself they’ve shared a good relationship, and that’s what he was reiterating.”

Epstein was found dead in his New York City jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. He pleaded guilty in a court in the state of Florida and was convicted of procuring a minor for prostitution in 2008, but critics call the relatively minor conviction a “sweetheart deal.”

His victims have alleged that he operated a sprawling sex trafficking network that was used by members of the wealthy and political elite.