Clintons’ offer to testify in Epstein probe rejected by House Oversight chair
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The Clintons had been adamant that they would not comply with subpoenas from the Republican-led committee.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Annie Karni
WASHINGTON – Representative James Comer of Kentucky, the Republican chair of the Oversight Committee, rejected on Feb 2 an offer from former US president Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary Clinton, to testify in the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, days before an expected House vote on holding them in criminal contempt of Congress
For months, the Clintons have been adamant that they would not comply with subpoenas from the Republican-led committee, which they described as invalid and legally unenforceable, and as part of a plot to target them as political adversaries of US President Donald Trump.
They had promised to fight Mr Comer on the issue for as long as it took.
But after some Democrats joined Republicans on the House Oversight Committee to recommend charging them with criminal contempt – an extraordinary first step that would refer them to the Justice Department for prosecution – the Clintons appeared to capitulate.
In a letter dated Jan 31 to Mr Comer, obtained by The New York Times, their lawyers said Mr Clinton would agree to sit for a four-hour, transcribed interview with the entire committee – a request he had previously described as an inappropriate and unprecedented request to make of a former president.
The lawyers asked that Mrs Clinton, who has said she never met or spoke to Epstein, be allowed to make a sworn declaration instead of testifying. They added that she would submit to an in-person interview if the committee insisted.
On the morning of Feb 2, Mr Comer flatly rejected the offer, calling it “unreasonable” and arguing that four hours of testimony from Mr Clinton was inadequate, given that he was a “loquacious individual” who might seek to run out the clock.
“Your clients’ desire for special treatment is both frustrating and an affront to the American people’s desire for transparency,” Mr Comer wrote in a letter sent on Feb 2 to the Clintons’ lawyers, also obtained by The New York Times.
Mr Clinton was acquainted with Epstein, the convicted sex offender who died in prison in 2019, but has said he never visited Epstein’s private island and cut off contact with him two decades ago.
Mr Clinton took four international trips on Epstein’s private jet in 2002 and 2003, according to flight logs. NYTIMES
