UPDATE: Shortly after this article’s publication, it was reported that the Clintons are refusing to testify to Congress about Jeffrey Epstein. The headline of this article has been updated accordingly, while the rest of the article remains unchanged.
(The Center Square) Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are supposed to sit for closed-door depositions this week as part of the ongoing Epstein files investigation, but it remains unclear if they will be attending.
The depositions have already been pushed back twice.
In August, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform subpoenaed Department of Justice records, a number of former attorneys general and FBI directors, and the Clintons. The Clintons’ subpoenas directed them to meet with congressional investigators for private testimony in October.
Their attorney has argued that neither of them has information relevant to the investigation. Their depositions were pushed back to mid-December. The attorney later requested to reschedule the December dates reportedly due to a funeral, according to Politico. They were rescheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 13, and Wednesday, Jan. 14.
The Center Square reached out to Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., and several other members of the committee on whether the committee had heard from them as of Monday but did not hear back in time for publication.
The committee had not released a new statement on the Clintons’ requested appearance as of 8 p.m. Monday.
In December, Comer said in a statement that the committee would begin “contempt of Congress proceedings” if the Clintons’ depositions didn’t happen.
“The former President and former Secretary of State have delayed, obstructed, and largely ignored the Committee staff’s efforts to schedule their testimony. If the Clintons fail to appear for their depositions next week or schedule a date for early January, the Oversight Committee will begin contempt of Congress proceedings to hold them accountable,” Comer said.
It is rare for Congress to subpoena former presidents, and rarer still for them to provide in-person, sworn testimony as part of a congressional investigation. President Donald Trump sued when he was subpoenaed to testify regarding Jan. 6.
It is well-established that Bill Clinton knew the disgraced financier and sex trafficker. Clinton has admitted to having flown on Epstein’s private jet, and Epstein also reportedly visited the Clinton White House numerous times (along with his associate Ghislaine Maxwell at least once). Maxwell has told Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche that Clinton was a friend of hers. Maxwell’s nephew worked for Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign and “was hired by the State Department shortly after” she became secretary of state, Clinton’s subpoena notes.
Trump also knew Epstein and it was reported in December that flight logs showed he had flown on his jet eight times. Like Bill Clinton, his name has also been mentioned many times in the Epstein files. Trump has not been subpoenaed in the Epstein files investigation, and in July, when the FBI said it wouldn’t be disclosing any more of the files, it also said it “did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.”
