Former US President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary Clinton, a former secretary of state, have agreed to testify before a congressional committee investigating the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, just days before lawmakers are due to vote on whether to hold them in criminal contempt of Congress.
The decision follows months of standoff with the Republican-led House Oversight Committee, which late last month approved a motion to hold the Clintons in contempt for failing to comply with subpoenas. Several Democrats backed the move.
Confirmation of the Clintons’ agreement came on Monday evening from Bill Clinton’s deputy chief of staff, Angel Ureña, who said the couple would appear before the panel. However, it remains unclear when the depositions will take place.
If it goes ahead, the testimony would mark the first time a former US president has appeared before a congressional committee since Gerald Ford did so in 1983.
Bill Clinton has acknowledged past contact with Epstein, who died in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges, but has consistently denied any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes. He has said he severed ties with Epstein more than 20 years ago and has never been accused of wrongdoing by survivors of Epstein’s abuse.
Ureña said the Clintons had previously cooperated by providing sworn written statements and sharing what they described as limited information they possessed about Epstein. He criticised the committee’s approach, accusing it of acting in bad faith and pursuing partisan objectives.
The Clintons have dismissed the subpoenas as an attempt to embarrass political opponents, alleging the move was politically motivated. In a letter sent last month to House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, they accused him of mishandling the investigation and said the panel’s actions had hindered efforts to uncover facts about the government’s role in the Epstein case.
Comer, a Republican from Kentucky, has rejected those claims, noting that the subpoenas were authorised by a bipartisan vote and insisting that no one is above the law. He said the committee had given Clinton’s legal team multiple opportunities to appear voluntarily, accusing them of repeatedly delaying.
Epstein’s private jet flight logs show that Bill Clinton took four international trips aboard the financier’s aircraft in 2002 and 2003. Photographs released by the US Department of Justice last December also show Clinton at Epstein’s estate, including images of him swimming in a pool and relaxing in what appears to be a hot tub. Clinton’s spokesman said the images were decades old and predated any public knowledge of Epstein’s criminal activities.
The Oversight Committee’s investigation forms part of a broader congressional effort to review government handling of Epstein’s case, following the release of large volumes of previously sealed records mandated by law.
With inputs from BBC