Bill and Hillary Clinton have agreed to testify in a House investigation into the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, backing away from a standoff with Republicans just days before the House was expected to vote on holding them in contempt of Congress.
The decision follows weeks of escalating tensions between the former president and former secretary of state and the Republican chair of the House oversight committee, James Comer, who on Monday said both Clintons would be required to appear for sworn depositions to satisfy the committee’s subpoenas.
“They negotiated in good faith. You did not,” Angel Ureña, a spokesperson for the Clintons, said in a social media post responding to Comer. “They told you under oath what they know, but you don’t care. But the former president and former secretary of state will be there. They look forward to setting a precedent that applies to everyone.”
The agreement comes as the House was preparing to vote this week on criminal contempt of Congress charges against the Clintons. If approved and pursued, the charges could have exposed them to significant fines and possible jail time upon conviction.
“The Clintons do not get to dictate the terms of lawful subpoenas,” Comer said in a statement.
For months, the Clintons had refused to comply with the subpoenas, arguing they were legally invalid and accusing Comer of pursuing them as part of what they described as a political retaliation campaign linked to Donald Trump.
According to committee correspondence with the Clintons’ attorneys, the pair had proposed alternative forms of cooperation: a transcribed interview for Bill Clinton focused on matters related to Epstein’s investigations and prosecutions, and a sworn written declaration from Hillary Clinton. Republicans rejected those terms, insisting on in-person sworn testimony.
The Republican-controlled oversight committee advanced contempt charges last month after the Clintons declined to testify. In a 12 January letter to Comer, their attorneys said the subpoenas were “invalid and legally unenforceable”, lacked a legitimate legislative purpose and violated the constitutional separation of powers.
The lawyers described the demands as “a ploy to embarrass political rivals”, claiming the effort followed directives from Trump.
Despite those objections, the threat of contempt proceedings appeared to push negotiations toward a resolution. Nine Democrats on the committee joined Republicans in supporting contempt charges against Bill Clinton, while three Democrats backed charges against Hillary Clinton, citing the need for transparency in the Epstein investigation.
Republicans have renewed focus on Bill Clinton’s past association with Epstein as part of a broader push to reopen scrutiny of Epstein’s network. Clinton, like several other prominent figures, including Trump, had a documented social relationship with Epstein in the late 1990s and early 2000s. He has not been accused of criminal wrongdoing in connection with Epstein.
The renewed political pressure follows the justice department’s release last week of more than 3m files related to Epstein, including thousands of videos and images. Among the documents were emails suggesting previously undisclosed communications between Epstein and the billionaire Elon Musk.
After the release, Democrats accused the Trump administration of orchestrating a “full-blown cover-up” after it effectively declared its Epstein investigation closed. Several Democrats, along with the Republican congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky, have said millions more pages of records remain undisclosed.
Even as they agreed to testify, the Clintons continued to criticize Comer, accusing him of politicizing the investigation while failing to press the administration to fully release justice department records related to Epstein.
