Clintons agree to appear before House committee, no date set

By Sarah Roderick-Fitch
The Center Square

Former President Bill Clinton and his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, have finally agreed to appear before the U.S. House Oversight Committee; however, a date has not been set.

The announcement came on the cusp of a vote to hold the couple in criminal contempt of Congress for failing to appear before the committee regarding the investigation into the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and their relationship to the disgraced financier.

Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., rejected an attempt from the Clintons’ attorneys to provide limited testimony, the former president to conduct a maximum four-hour transcribed interview, and the former first lady to submit a sworn declaration. Comer has dug in his heels, demanding that the couple appear before the committee.

In light of the latest development, the House Rules Committee has agreed to postpone proceeding with contempt of Congress charges – though it is not off the table with Comer noting to reporters that the committee doesn’t “have anything in writing” and is dependent on the terms.

“Actions have consequences … Former President Clinton and former Secretary Clinton were legally required to appear for a deposition before the Oversight Committee,” Comer told the House Rules Committee.

Comer issued subpoenas to the Clintons in early August, noting examples of a potentially close relationship between the former president and Epstein in the letter to Bill Clinton.

“By your own admission, you flew on Jeffrey Epstein’s private plane four separate times in 2002 and 2003. During one of these trips, you were even pictured receiving a ‘massage’ from one of Mr. Epstein’s victims,” the congressman wrote. “It has also been claimed that you pressured Vanity Fair not to publish sex trafficking allegations against your ‘good friend’ Mr. Epstein, and there are conflicting reports about whether you ever visited Mr. Epstein’s island. You were also allegedly close to Ms. Ghislane Maxwell, an Epstein co-conspirator, and attended an intimate dinner with her in 2014, three years after public reports about her involvement in Mr. Epstein’s abuse of minors.”

Comer’s letter to Hillary Clinton indicated that the former president’s trips on Epstein’s plane were part of the Clinton Family Foundation trips. He also included a connection between the former first couple and Maxwell, noting that Maxwell’s nephew was employed by Hillary Clinton’s 2008 failed presidential campaign and then hired by the State Department after becoming Secretary of State.

Comer insists the purpose of the investigation is to “inform legislative solutions to improve federal efforts to combat sex trafficking and reform the use of non-prosecution agreements and/or plea agreements in sex-crime investigations.”