Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be deposed by the House Oversight Committee at the end of this month.
Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., announced Hillary Clinton will sit for a closed-door transcribed interview on Feb. 26, and Bill Clinton will appear on Feb. 27 under the same terms.
Both interviews will be filmed, Comer’s press release said.
It comes after weeks of back-and-forth between the former first couple and the House GOP-led committee about whether they would testify in the chamber’s probe into Jeffrey Epstein, and under what terms.
The Clintons were both facing contempt of Congress votes in the House this week if they did not agree to come to Capitol Hill for in-person interviews with the Oversight Committee.
Those votes were likely to succeed as well. Late last month, nine Democrats on the House Oversight Committee joined all Republicans in voting to advance Bill Clinton’s contempt of Congress resolution to a House-wide vote. Three Democrats voted to advance the resolution against Hillary Clinton.
A contempt of Congress vote would refer both Clintons to the Department of Justice (DOJ) for criminal prosecution.
A contempt of Congress conviction is a misdemeanor that carries a maximum fine of $100,000 and up to a year in jail.
‘Republicans and Democrats on the Oversight Committee have been clear: no one is above the law — and that includes the Clintons. After delaying and defying duly issued subpoenas for six months, the House Oversight Committee moved swiftly to initiate contempt of Congress proceedings in response to their non-compliance,’ Comer said in a statement.
‘Once it became clear that the House of Representatives would hold them in contempt, the Clintons completely caved and will appear for transcribed, filmed depositions this month. We look forward to questioning the Clintons as part of our investigation into the horrific crimes of Epstein and Maxwell, to deliver transparency and accountability for the American people and for survivors.’
Fox News Digital reached out to Bill Clinton’s spokesman for comment.
The Clintons were two of 10 people subpoenaed for testimony before the committee as it probes the federal government’s handling of Epstein’s case. So far just two people subpoenaed by the committee, former Attorney General Bill Barr and ex-Labor Secretary Alex Acosta, have appeared in person.
Their attorneys wrote to Comer last month calling his subpoenas legally invalid and a violation of separation of powers, arguments the Kentucky Republican rejected.
‘President and Secretary Clinton have already provided the limited information they possess about Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell to the Committee. They did so proactively and voluntarily, and despite the fact that the Subpoenas are invalid and legally unenforceable, untethered to a valid legislative purpose, unwarranted because they do not seek pertinent information, and an unprecedented infringement on the separation of powers,’ the letter read.
The two sides then went back-and-forth discussing various terms as Comer continued to forge ahead with contempt proceedings.
Comer twice rejected offers for himself and Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., the top Democrat on the committee, to travel to New York with limited staff to interview Bill Clinton.
Meanwhile, Democrats had accused Comer of pursuing the contempt charges for political motivations rather than to get closure for Epstein’s victims.
Bill Clinton was known to have a friendship with Epstein before his federal criminal charges and is among many high-profile names to appear in the trove of files being released on the late pedophile by the DOJ. But there has been no implication of wrongdoing by either of the Clintons as it relates to Epstein.
With a looming vote that could have set up an unprecedented criminal prosecution, the Clintons’ attorneys wrote to the committee on Monday, ‘[M]y clients accept the terms of your letter and will appear for depositions on mutually agreeable dates. As has been the Committee’s practice, please confirm the House will not move forward with contempt proceedings, as the Chairman stated in his letter this morning.’
