Clintons Reverse Course After Contempt Threat, Will Testify on Epstein Files

Bill and Hillary Clinton have agreed to testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee as part of its investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton notified House Oversight Chair James Comer (R‑Ky.) this week that they will sit for transcribed, videotaped depositions later this month, according to committee statements and Clinton representatives. The agreement came just days before the House was expected to vote on holding the couple in criminal contempt for repeatedly defying subpoenas tied to the Epstein probe.

No former president has ever been held in criminal contempt of Congress, so a House vote to do that to Bill Clinton would have been a first‑of‑its‑kind escalation in the use of Congress’s contempt power.

Under the current schedule, Hillary Clinton will appear before the committee on February 26, followed by Bill Clinton on February 27, for depositions that will be filmed and transcribed.

Even as they agreed to cooperate, the Clintons are pushing to move their testimony from closed‑door depositions to public hearings with cameras. In social media posts and letters to the committee, Hillary Clinton argued that a public session is the only way to ensure true transparency, directly challenging Republicans who insist the format must match that of other witnesses in the Epstein investigation.

“For six months, we engaged Republicans on the Oversight Committee in good faith. We told them what we know, under oath. They ignored all of it. They moved the goalposts and turned accountability into an exercise in distraction.” she wrote on X.

Bill Clinton wrote: “I have called for the full release of the Epstein files. I have provided a sworn statement of what I know. And just this week, I’ve agreed to appear in person before the committee. But it’s still not enough for Republicans on the House Oversight Committee.

“Now, Chairman Comer says he wants cameras, but only behind closed doors. Who benefits from this arrangement? It’s not Epstein’s victims, who deserve justice. Not the public, who deserve the truth. It serves only partisan interests. This is not fact-finding, it’s pure politics.

“I will not sit idly as they use me as a prop in a closed-door kangaroo court by a Republican Party running scared. If they want answers, let’s stop the games & do this the right way: in a public hearing, where the American people can see for themselves what this is really about.”

Democrats on the panel have signaled support for the Clintons’ request for a public session, but Comer has indicated he intends to proceed with closed‑door interviews in line with other witnesses in the Epstein probe.

The Clintons spent months vowing to defy the subpoenas, calling them legally baseless and politically motivated. Their lawyers had argued that the Epstein inquiry was being weaponized by House Republicans aligned with President Donald Trump to damage political opponents, and warned they were prepared to risk contempt rather than legitimize what they described as a partisan spectacle. Momentum shifted when several Democrats joined Republicans on the Oversight Committee to advance a contempt resolution, increasing the likelihood that the full House would refer criminal charges to the Justice Department. 

The House Oversight investigation is examining what lawmakers call the “network of facilitators and enablers” around Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, including high‑profile figures who associated with him before his 2019 death in federal custody. Bill Clinton has long acknowledged traveling with Epstein on several occasions but denies knowing about or participating in any criminal conduct, and no public evidence has emerged tying him directly to Epstein’s crimes.

Donald Trump’s absence from questioning in the Epstein investigation has drawn sharp scrutiny because his name appears tens of thousands of times in the newly released Justice Department files. A New York Times–reviewed cache of roughly three million pages shows Trump referenced in more than 5,000 entries across FBI forms, correspondence, and investigative material, including unverified abuse allegations and documentation of social and business contacts between Trump, Epstein, and Mar‑a‑Lago. Despite this extensive paper trail, House Republicans have not moved to compel Trump’s testimony in their Epstein inquiry, even as they threatened the Clintons with criminal contempt to force closed‑door depositions.