The Clintons appear ready to testify to Congress about Jeffrey Epstein after being threatened with contempt
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Former US president Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, who was nominated for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016, will testify in the congressional investigation into the late Jeffrey Epstein’s sex act, a staff member said on Monday.
A Republican-led House committee recommended last week that the Clintons be held in contempt for refusing to testify about their relationship with Epstein, with most Democrats on the panel concurring. The Clintons promised to cooperate with this team but refused to appear in person, saying that the investigation was a biased act aimed at protecting Republican President Donald Trump.
The House of Representatives later this week plans to impeach two top Democrats, findings that could lead to criminal charges. Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro, who served in Trump’s first administration, are serving short prison terms in 2024 for refusing to appear before a House committee investigating Trump’s actions that led to the January 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol.
Asked whether the House would lift its impeachment votes against the Clintons, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson told Reuters: “They’re working that out right now. The lawyers are looking at the details.”
Earlier, Johnson accepted the news that the former president and the former secretary of state agreed to testify.
The US Department of Justice released thousands of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein with many redactions. Former American president Bill Clinton is among the most prominent people in this set of things and few have been mentioned about American President Donald Trump.
The recent release by the US Department of Justice of millions of internal documents related to Epstein revealed the ties of the late financier and sex offender to many prominent people in politics, finance, academia and business – before and after pleading guilty to prostitution charges in 2008.
It would be unprecedented in modern times for a former president to testify before Congress in such a highly charged setting. Harry Truman and Gerald Ford are the only former presidents to testify in Congress since World War II – Truman spoke about the United Nations Charter, and Ford appeared to discuss the centenary of the US Constitution.
Republicans want ‘political spectacle’: top Democrat
Like Trump, Bill Clinton is known to have flown on Epstein’s plane many times. He expressed remorse for the relationship and said he knew nothing of Epstein’s criminal activity.
Clinton’s representatives say the former president severed ties with Epstein after the first round of criminal charges in 2006. Epstein’s confidante, now incarcerated Ghislaine Maxwell, attended the wedding of Clinton’s daughter, Chelsea, in 2010.
Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state and 2016 president, said through her spokesman that she “doesn’t remember talking to Epstein.”
James Comer of Kentucky, chairman of the committee that oversees the organization’s operations, said Monday that the Clintons had not released a date for filing their request and would discuss next steps with members of the committee.
“The Clintons’ attorneys have said they agree to the terms, but those terms are unclear and they haven’t given any dates for their impeachment,” Comer said. “I will clarify the terms they agree on and discuss the next steps with my committee members.”
COmer earlier Monday rejected a proposal by the Clintons’ lawyers to have Bill Clinton do a written interview and Hillary Clinton deliver a sworn statement.
US Democratic Representative Suhas Subramanyam says the recent release of more than three million pages from the Epstein files confirms that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor had a close relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and wants him to testify before the US Congress. King Charles stripped his brother of the title in early November amid mounting pressure over his relationship with Epstein.
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries told ABC News that in his opinion the Clintons gave honest advice to testify, suggesting Comer’s motives were ulterior and designed to embarrass the couple.
“The idea that they’re going to go after Secretary Clinton and Bill Clinton in contempt of a crime — in other words, this is a way to ‘lock him up’ — seems against the law, if the goal is to try to get information instead of creating a political spectacle,” Jeffries told ABC News on Sunday.
Democrats also say the Justice Department has not released all of its assets from the late financier, and that Republican leadership has not pressed the issue.
