Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton agreed late Monday night to testify in a House investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Their submission to demands to appear – delivered initially by email through a third party – thereby avoids a vote to hold the septuagenarians in criminal contempt after months of refusing to testify in person about the personal files now in circulation in general and their relationship(s) with the paedophile financier in particular.
It’s unclear when the depositions will take place. It is clear however it will be the first time a former U.S. president has testified to a congressional panel since Gerald Ford did so in 1983.
On Monday evening, Bill Clinton’s deputy chief of staff Angel Ureña claimed victimhood for the the pair while posting on X confirming the couple would appear.
“They negotiated in good faith,” Ureña wrote in a tweet directed at the House Oversight Committee. “You did not.
“They told you under oath what they know, but you don’t care. But the former President and former Secretary of State will be there. They look forward to setting a precedent that applies to everyone.”
The Republican leading the probe noted the move but specified an agreement had not yet been finalized, nothing had been submitted in writing and the accused couple do not “get to dictate the terms of lawful subpoenas.”
AP reports Rep. James Comer, the chair of the House Oversight Committee, continued to press for criminal contempt of Congress charges against both Clintons Monday evening for defying a congressional subpoena when attorneys for the Clintons emailed staff for the Oversight panel, saying the pair would accept Comer’s demands and “will appear for depositions on mutually agreeable dates.”
The attorneys requested Comer, a Kentucky Republican, agree not to move forward with the contempt proceedings.
Comer, however, said he was not immediately dropping the charges, which would carry the threat of a substantial fine and even incarceration if passed by the House and successfully prosecuted by the Department of Justice, the AP report notes.
“We don’t have anything in writing,” Comer told reporters, adding he was open to accepting the Clintons’ offer but “it depends on what they say.”
Comer earlier Monday rejected an offer from attorneys for the Clintons to have Bill Clinton conduct a transcribed interview and Hillary Clinton submit a sworn declaration. He insisted that both Clintons sit for sworn depositions before the committee in order to fulfill the panel’s subpoenas.
The BBC notes both Clintons say they previously provided the committee with sworn statements and have already provided the “limited information” they had on Epstein.
The Clintons had dismissed the legal summonses as “nothing more than a ploy to attempt to embarrass political rivals, as President Trump has directed.”
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