Why Hillary Clinton Presents As a Risky Deponent Under Congressional Questioning
From a legal-tactics standpoint, Hillary Clinton presents meaningful vulnerabilities as a deponent: in prior public testimony on January 23, 2013, she reacted to sustained, pointed questioning with visible agitation—raising her voice and even pounding the witness table for emphasis—before delivering the now-infamous line, “What difference, at this point, does it make?” [Video]
Skilled committee counsel can replicate that pressure-cooker dynamic in a deposition by using short, controlled, exhibit-anchored questions and strategic pauses to invite elaboration; if her responses become similarly combative or imprecise, the transcript and video provide fertile ground to impeach credibility later and to lock in admissions.
Because depositions allow methodical, document-by-document examination, they can also surface details not previously on the public record—especially when paired with contemporaneous DOJ and agency productions that enable immediate contradiction of any inaccurate claims.
