Bill and Hillary Clinton have agreed to appear for in-person depositions in Washington, DC, in the congressional Jeffrey Epstein probe, caving at the eleventh hour in hopes of avoiding a House contempt of Congress vote.
Just hours earlier, House Oversight Chairman James Comer had rebuffed a last-ditch offer from the former president and former secretary of state’s attorneys that came with a number of conditions.
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“It has been nearly six months since your clients first received the Committee’s subpoena, more than three months since the original date of their depositions, and nearly three weeks since they failed to appear for their depositions commensurate with the Committee’s lawful subpoenas,” Comer wrote. “Your clients’ desire for special treatment is both frustrating and an affront to the American people’s desire for transparency.”
The initial correspondence, obtained by CNN, revealed that the Clintons’ team has been in search of an off-ramp for days. Attorneys for the former president and former secretary of state have been in discussion with the Republican-led committee multiple times since lawmakers from both parties voted in January to hold the Clintons in contempt for refusing to appear for in-person depositions as part of the panel’s investigation into Epstein.
By rejecting the Clintons’ initial offer, Comer had all but ensured that the House would hold a final vote this week on the contempt resolutions.
According to the letter dated Jan. 31, the Clintons’ lawyers laid out the terms under which the former president would sit for a voluntary, transcribed interview. He would sit for four hours in New York City for an interview limited to the scope of the Epstein probe, they said. Lawmakers from both parties and their staff could ask questions, and the lawyers said both the Clintons and the committee could have their own transcriber present, according to the letter.
Even though the lawyers continued to push for the panel to drop its subpoena for Hillary Clinton’s testimony, they said she could submit a second sworn declaration or appear for an in-person interview in a similar format to her husband.
In exchange, Clinton attorneys Ashley Callen and David E. Kendall asked Comer to withdraw the subpoenas and contempt resolutions against them.
Bill Clinton has repeatedly denied wrongdoing related to Epstein, the late convicted sex offender.
Comer rejected the offer from the Clintons’ attorneys as “unreasonable” and said he could not accept such terms.
He could not agree, he said, to changing the interview from a sworn deposition to a voluntary interview, and rejected the way in which the attorneys sought to limit the interview’s scope. Comer noted if the attorneys had offered a voluntary interview when the former president first received his subpoena for testimony in August, the situation could have played out differently.
“But given that he has already failed to appear for a deposition and has refused for several months to provide the Committee with in-person testimony, the Committee cannot simply have faith that President Clinton will not refuse to answer questions at a transcribed interview, resulting in the Committee being right back where it is today,” the Kentucky Republican wrote.
Clinton, he added, would have incentive to attempt to “run out the clock” if the committee agreed to a firm, four-hour time limit for an interview. And the Republican chairman questioned why the Clintons wanted their own transcriber, if an official court reporter provided by the panel would be present.
In his letter, Comer referenced how the process played out for former President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, who agreed to sit for an in-person deposition, not a voluntary transcribed interview, following a committee vote to hold him in contempt.
Ultimately, Comer also rejected the proposals laid out for Hillary Clinton.
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