Monday marked the release of the full videos of the closed-door depositions of former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, which offered Americans more insight into the conversations and lines of questioning from the late-February meetings.
There have been a few viral exchanges from Hillary Clinton’s deposition so far — including some heated exchanges with Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) over photos of the deposition that were shared (appearing to violate committee rules) and an on-the-record conversation about the “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory.
With the added visuals now readily available on YouTube (albeit with some watermarks), HuffPost spoke with body language experts about a few of the more notable exchanges and what the major nonverbal takeaways might be from Clinton’s deposition.
HuffPost/GOP House Oversight Committee Youtube
Hillary Clinton’s posture, with her head resting on her hand, can be seen as a “comfort” gesture, Wood notes, specifically one that can help regulate oneself or provide comfort while also displaying a “classic” Clinton tell of “boredom.”
‘What restraint and control look like.’
Beth Dawson, a communication, body language, and behavior analyst, notes that Clinton is a highly “disciplined” speaker in these contexts — and that can make her a bit “harder to read” than some of her contemporaries.
“Hillary Clinton is someone I often use in class to show students what restraint and control look like,” Dawson told HuffPost. “Her baseline is high muscular control. She maintains very controlled facial expressions, minimal fidgeting, steady posture and measured blinking. All of this suggests deliberate self-regulation rather than spontaneous reactivity.”
Dawson notes that “stillness” is one of Clinton’s “defining features”— and her movements are often highly controlled.
“Many politicians over-gesture under stress, but Clinton often does the opposite. She reduces movement, which projects composure and authority. She IS harder to read than many other politicians, not because she is unreadable, but because she is disciplined,” Dawson said. “Highly media-trained figures like her develop controlled affect, minimal emotional leakage, consistent vocal pacing and rehearsed posture patterns.”
Likewise, that same control is often seen in what bits of emotion we are shown: “Her emotional displays are usually very contained. Even when challenged, she often smiles briefly in response to hostile framing, tightens her lips slightly instead of showing irritation, and maintains steady eye contact while speaking. That micro-smile under pressure can signal dominance, convey incredulity, or act as a self-soothing mechanism,” Dawson added. “Compared to more reactive politicians who gesture broadly, interrupt or show irritation quickly, she presents fewer obvious emotional spikes. She feels and reacts, but she does so with remarkable modulation.”
This control is something Patti Wood, a body language and nonverbal communication expert and author of “SNAP: Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language, and Charisma” also noted — adding that there’s a bit of a tightrope that women, especially of Clinton’s generation, are asked to walk when it comes to displaying emotions. Anger, in particular.
“She typically can’t go all the way to rage and anger or yell and scream like men can get away with,” Wood explained. “So what’s always been difficult is that her gender is keeping her from doing something that a man in this particular situation could do: scream and yell. And she can’t do that. And bizarrely, it makes her look weirder.”
There are a few bits of what Dawson calls “micro-shifts” — small tells that aren’t quite “emotional leakage” but that might give someone insight into her true feelings.
“You might notice a slight tightening of the jaw when she is interrupted, subtle head tilts when challenging the premise of a question, controlled inhalations before responding to adversarial points, or a brief downward gaze before she reframes her answer,” Dawson said. “These are subtle regulatory behaviors rather than overt emotional expressions.”
Likewise, there is a clear communication of power dynamics on display, too: “She frequently shifts into what could be called ‘professor mode,’ with her chin slightly down, eyes looking up through the brow, and a slower, deliberate cadence,” Dawson adds. “That shift subtly reframes the power dynamic, moving her from the position of defendant to explainer.”
Now let’s look at THAT moment when Clinton found out about the Boebert leaks …
Early in the deposition, when Clinton was made aware of photos leaked via Boebert to conservative commentator Benny Johnson, our experts noticed a few obvious body language cues.
“When she first hears about the leaked photos, she turns her head and displays a cluster of movements: a furrowed brow, hand on her chin, wide eyes, and a slight lift of the mouth corners,” Dawson noted. “This is not a smile. It reflects cognitive appraisal — she is thinking through the situation and she is showing restrained incredulity. There is also a hint of resignation, as if to say, ‘Oh, I see what’s happening here.’”
Dawson also noted a moment when Clinton sits up straighter, hands behind the table and looks around the room with her “front teeth lightly into her lip” that was particularly meaningful: “Sitting up straight signals alertness or readiness and a move into a more formal posture. Hiding her hands, which are naturally expressive, indicates increased self-regulation. Pressing her teeth into her lip is a holding gesture, showing restraint and careful control. Looking around the room suggests situational assessment, checking reactions, and recalibrating to the environment.”
“Taken together, this cluster reads as heightened awareness followed by deliberate containment,” Dawson said. “It does not indicate a loss of control, but rather a conscious management of her response to the moment.” Wood also noted the timing of this leak. In nonverbal communication, the study of timing (chrometics) can show how the timing of certain communications can dramatically affect a situation. For Wood, the timing of this exchange early on feels notable as it seems to be designed to “make [Clinton] unsettled.”
“When you’re reading, doing a nonverbal read, context is everything. And some people from the outside might think that ‘oh, putting these photos on social media is not a big deal.’ But I believe it was a dramatic choice,” Wood said, adding that she believes it was done to “trigger” and “create [Clinton’s] dramatic response.”
HuffPost/GOP House Oversight Committee Youtube
A moment from Hillary Clinton’s deposition discussing the Epstein files when she discovered Rep. Boebert had leaked images of her to a conservative commentator.
“Because it’s so outrageous, because it was all this negotiation about [the Clintons] wanting to do this in public,” Wood continued. “I believe it was to create a dramatic response — and, boy, did she get it.”
Wood also noted the posture Clinton had of her head resting on one of her hands. This can be a self-comforting gesture, as different forms of “self touch” can be in high-stakes situations like this. But Wood also said it’s a “classically baseline Hillary Clinton” gesture of “boredom of the situation.”
To Wood, it can also say: “I am above this. I am so bored. I should not have to be here.”
The “outburst” that we see later, where Clinton physically stands up from the table stating she can be held in contempt until the “cows come home”— again noting that there’s limits to the levels of anger women can get away with — is still a “controlled” one, per Dawson.
“However, the first outburst is controlled. She declares she is done, emphasizing her words with hand movements and head nods. She is clearly signaling that she means business. She is not overtly emotional until the end of the video and we know that she is becoming angrier because we hear it in her voice, particularly when she says ‘it doesn’t matter,’” Dawson said. “Her vocal tone rises and is less composed and there is a higher pitch. The voice is actually harder to control than body movements and can reveal genuine feeling.”
… And when Boebert brings up ‘Pizzagate,’ there’s no hiding the ‘exasperation.’
Even the most stoic and media-trained individuals have their breaking points — and being asked about a fringe conspiracy theory could be one for just about anybody.
For Wood, Clinton’s expressions during this exchange about “Pizzagate” conspiracies were very telling: “She’s looking at Boebert like she’s the stupidest person in the world. There’s a glare, this tilted head, she’s looking at her and it’s like ‘I cannot,’” Wood said. “The mouth tight, tightly shut lips. She’s looking at her as if she’s stupid. And I think that’s interesting because she is revealing how she feels about Boebert in that particular situation.”
“She shakes her head left and right — that’s indicating ‘I can’t believe this is happening,’ and she continues to shake her head.”
Wood notes that a reaction from someone with something to hide would be very different: “It would be closed body language. It would be totally different emotionally. Instead, it’s ‘You’re stupid. This is ridiculous.’”
HuffPost/GOP House Oversight Committee Youtube
Clinton listening to Boebert’s questions around the Pizzagate conspiracy theory during her Epstein deposition.
Dawson agrees, noting that in the initial 30 seconds of the exchange, Clinton remains in her baseline communication style: composed, minimal movement, no large reactions or movements.
“She stays very still, but we see her processing the information emotionally through long blinks. Her head tilts slightly, and there is a half-frozen smile which is not a genuine smile, and this conveys incredulity,” she said. “When questioned further about Pizzagate, we see a genuine smile and her speech is precise and authoritative with a low vocal tone as she makes her point. Throughout the questioning, she sighs and exhibits authentic exasperation through breathing, blinking and smiling clusters, all of the movements as a cluster signal just how ridiculous she finds the questions. These signals are very authentic.”
And this, Dawson said, offers a “textbook example” of how Clinton operates in high-pressure situations like this deposition: “Her body language, micro-shifts, and controlled responses reveal a practiced, highly disciplined approach to communicating under scrutiny while maintaining authority and composure,” Dawson said. “But we can see that she can lose that composure and react more emotionally when she feels something is ‘ridiculous.’”
“Another politician might find questions, such as the Pizzagate questions, amusing or they might welcome the distraction. She doesn’t,” Dawson said. “She is exasperated and she shows it.”
