Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have agreed to testify in a House investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.
Angel Ureña, a spokesperson for Bill Clinton, responded in a post Monday to a letter from House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., saying the Clintons had “negotiated in good faith” and that Comer “had not.”
“They told you under oath what they know, but you don’t care,” Ureña wrote. “But the former President and former Secretary of State will be there. They look forward to setting a precedent that applies to everyone.”
It was not immediately clear when and where the Clintons will testify.
In a statement Monday night, Comer said that while attorneys for the Clintons said they agreed to the terms, “those terms lack clarity yet again and they have provided no dates for their depositions.”
“The only reason they have said they agree to terms is because the House has moved forward with contempt. I will clarify the terms they are agreeing to and then discuss next steps with my committee members,” Comer said.
The Oversight Committee previously voted to advance contempt resolutions for the Clintons to the House floor. The Rules Committee was meeting Monday to approve the resolutions, with an expected vote this week.
The committee subpoenaed the Clintons in August along with several top former Justice Department officials, including former Attorneys General Merrick Garland, Loretta Lynch, Eric Holder, William Barr, Jeff Sessions and Alberto Gonzales; and former FBI Directors James Comey and Robert Mueller requesting testimony “related to the horrific crimes perpetrated by Jeffrey Epstein.”
The Justice Department on Friday released more than 3.5 million pages’ worth of files related to Epstein, which Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said constituted about half of the more than 6 million relevant documents the Justice Department collected. Much of the released materials were redacted.
The first set of Epstein files released by the Justice Department in December included numerous pictures of Bill Clinton, who his spokesperson said had flown on Epstein’s plane for Clinton Foundation trips in the early 2000s, before Epstein was charged with any sex crimes.
Bill Clinton has denied any wrongdoing. He previously said that he cut ties with Epstein before the financier was accused in 2006 of having sex with a minor.
In a December statement, Hillary Clinton’s spokesperson, Nick Merrill, said, “Since this started, we’ve been asking what the hell Hillary Clinton has to do with this, and [Comer] hasn’t been able to come up with an answer.”
Earlier on Monday, Comer rejected an offer that came in from attorneys for the Clintons over the weekend. On Saturday, the attorneys said that Bill Clinton would sit for a four-hour transcribed interview in New York City, according to a copy of the letter which was obtained by NBC News. The attorneys wrote that the “scope of the interview would be confined to matters related to the investigations and prosecutions of Jeffrey Epstein.”
The attorneys also requested that additional questions for Hillary Clinton be “addressed through a supplemental sworn declaration” rather than in-person testimony. But they said that, if needed, she would sit for an in-person interview following the same format as the one requested for her husband.
In his response to that offer Monday, Comer called the request for the committee to withdraw its subpoena and contempt resolution prior to the interview “not reasonable.”
Source: NBC News
--Agencies
