As a vote to hold the Clintons in contempt of Congress approaches, they consent to testify on Epstein.

In the congressional probe of late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, former US President Bill Clinton and his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, have consented to testify.
The decision to charge the couple in criminal contempt for their refusal to testify before the House Oversight Committee following a months-long stalemate is being considered only days before the vote.

Bill Clinton was acquainted with Epstein, who passed away in prison in 2019, although he claims he stopped communicating with him twenty years ago and has denied knowing about his sexual offenses.  The timing of the depositions is unknown, but it will be the first time since Gerald Ford’s 1983 testimony that a former US president has spoken before a congressional panel.

A request to come before the committee had long been rejected by the Clintons, who claimed to have already provided sworn statements outlining the “limited information” they knew about Epstein.  “Nothing more than a ploy to attempt to embarrass political rivals, as President Trump has directed” was how they had characterized the committee’s court summons.

Late last month, a number of Democrats supported the Republican-led House Oversight Committee’s decision to hold the Clintons in contempt. The couple’s attorneys offered on Saturday for the couple to give restricted testimony that would have focused on Bill Clinton’s four-hour interview. James Comer, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, however, voiced worries that the former president would stall inquiries and waste time.

Angel Ureña, Bill Clinton’s deputy chief of staff, confirmed on X on Monday night that the pair will be attending the panel.

“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.”

Survivors of Epstein’s abuse have denied knowledge of Clinton’s sex offenses and have not accused him of any misconduct. Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential contender and former US senator and secretary of state, has denied ever having met or spoken to Epstein. According to Epstein’s personal jet logs, Clinton traveled abroad four times in 2002 and 2003.

Clinton’s spokesperson claimed the former president made “stops in connection with the work of the Clinton Foundation” on the aircraft shortly after Epstein was detained on sex trafficking charges in July 2019.

The former president may be seen swimming in a pool in one photo and reclining on his back in what looks to be a hot tub with his hands behind his head in another. When the images were made public in December, Clinton’s spokesperson, Ureña, claimed that the images were decades old and that Clinton had ceased to associate with Epstein prior to his crimes being discovered.The Clintons criticized James Comer, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, in a letter last month for how he handled the Epstein inquiry.

“The decisions you have made, and the priorities you have set as chairman regarding the Epstein investigation, have prevented progress in discovering the facts about the government’s role,” the letter said.

They added: “There is no plausible explanation for what you are doing other than partisan politics.”