Rep. Lauren Boebert provided reporters with a baffling explanation after leaking a photo of Hillary Clinton’s Thursday deposition to far-right YouTuber Benny Johnson.
“I really admire her blue suit, so I wanted to capture that for everyone,” Boebert, a member of the House Oversight Committee, told reporters in Chappaqua, New York. When a reporter asked why she sent the picture to Johnson, Boebert responded, “Why not?”
She also told reporters that she had “just returned to my hotel room and installed the BleachBit software,” referring to a disk cleaning program for Windows, adding, “So I guess in regards to taking photos, I do not recall.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the Clinton Foundation for comment.
Johnson posted Boebert’s photo of Clinton taken during the former secretary of state’s deposition on the Clintons’ relationship with Jeffrey Epstein just after midday, writing on X, “🚨BREAKING: The first image of Hillary Clinton testifying under oath about Jeffery [sic] Epstein to the Republican Oversight Committee. This is the first time Hillary has had to answer real questions about Epstein. Clinton does not look happy. Photo provided by Rep. Lauren Boebert.”
In a follow-up post, Johnson shared the full image, which featured Boebert’s nameplate prominently, as well as others present at the deposition.
Shortly after the images were shared, an adviser for Clinton left the deposition room at the Chappaqua Performing Arts Center in New York to say that the deposition had been halted.
“The hearing just went off the record for a moment because it seems, and some of you may have seen that there were some photographs shared on social media, which is against chamber rules that were read at the top of the meeting,” Clinton adviser Nick Merrill said.
He said the session had been paused while they figured out where the photo came from and “why possibly members of Congress are violating House rules.” Taking a photo of a closed-door deposition and sharing it on social media is a violation of House rules. The deposition was recorded, and footage will be made available to the public at a later date.
Johnson claimed that Clinton herself “stormed” out of the meeting and that her PR team was “crying” about him to the press, going on to accuse her of “trying to get out of answering questions about Epstein because of a pic.”
Boebert then shared Johnson’s post, adding, “Benny did nothing wrong. Proceeding with deposition.” The deposition then resumed.
Speaking to reporters just before 6 p.m., Clinton said that they had a “bit of a challenge in the beginning, because we had agreed upon rules… and one of the members violated that rule, which was very upsetting, because it suggested that they might violate other of our agreements.”
“We had to cease the hearing for a period of time until we could get assurances that no rules would be broken going forward, and we returned to answer questions, repetitively, literally, over and over again,” Clinton continued.
Johnson posted a clip of Clinton speaking to reporters, describing her as “seething” at his viral photo.
Johnson later posted a meme of himself dancing in a nightclub with the caption, “I p---ed off Hillary Clinton today. And I am not suicidal,” a reference to a popular right-wing conspiracy theory that the Clintons staged Jeffrey Epstein’s death to look like a suicide in order to cover up their relationship to him.
In a video posted to X, Johnson said that Clinton’s entire team “lost their minds” over the publication of the image, adding that “she even sent out her press flacks to go attack me.”
“Yikes,” Johnson said in response to footage of Merrill mentioning him as the publisher of the photo. “Hope the cameras are working when I’m in federal prison,” he added, in another reference to Epstein’s suicide.
Democrats were quick to condemn the leak, with committee Ranking Member Robert Garcia accusing Republicans of breaking their own rules, and saying it was “gracious” of Clinton to continue with the deposition.
“What is not acceptable is Oversight Republicans breaking their own committee rules that they established with the Secretary and her team,” Garcia told reporters. “It was gracious of the Secretary and her team to continue the deposition.”
Democratic Rep. Yassamin Ansari criticized Thursday’s deposition as an “unserious clown show,” arguing that Republicans were more concerned with getting their “photo op” than uncovering the truth and holding anyone accountable.
