Bill and Hillary Clinton will appear for transcribed depositions in late February as part of a House committee investigation into the deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the panel’s chairman announced Tuesday.
The former secretary of State will appear Feb. 26 and the former president will appear on Feb. 27, according to House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman James R. Comer, R-Ky.
“Once it became clear that the House of Representatives would hold them in contempt, the Clintons completely caved and will appear for transcribed, filmed depositions this month,” Comer said in a statement.
The agreement to deposition dates is an apparent breakthrough in long-running, behind-the-scenes negotiations between the Oversight committee and the Clintons.
A subcommittee subpoenaed the duo last year as part of the Oversight panel’s probe into Epstein and his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a federal prison sentence. Bill Clinton had appeared in photos with Epstein.
The setting of deposition dates will likely lead House Republicans to temporarily suspend contempt of Congress proceedings against the Clintons, who did not appear for separate depositions last month. Republicans quickly pushed forward with contempt proceedings after the no-show from the Clintons.
The contempt measures would tee up Speaker Mike Johnson to take “all appropriate action to enforce the subpoena.” Both contempt reports conclude the Clintons’ “willful refusal to comply” with committee subpoenas “warrants referral to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia for prosecution as prescribed by law.”
Attorneys for the Clintons have slammed the subpoenas, saying the Clintons proactively provided the limited information they had on Epstein and Maxwell. They also argued the subpoenas are unwarranted because they “do not seek pertinent information.”
“It is clear the Subpoenas themselves — and any subsequent attempt to enforce them — are nothing more than a ploy to attempt to embarrass political rivals, as President Trump has directed,” a past letter from the attorneys states.
Earlier Tuesday, it hadn’t been clear whether the Clintons would agree to terms outlined by Comer.
Republicans gave the Clintons a noon deadline to outline how they would comply with the subpoenas. Comer, in an interview midday on Capitol Hill, said the Clintons had not specified deposition dates.
“We’ve sent them the standard rules of a deposition and they have to agree to come in in February. Any date in February. Both of them,” Comer said.
Comer then pulled out his phone and checked the time — 11:59 a.m. “They’ve got one minute,” he said.
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