Former US President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary Clinton have agreed to testify as part of a congressional investigation into the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, according to a senior aide.
Bill Clinton’s former deputy chief of staff confirmed the decision on social media, writing: “The former President and former Secretary of State will be there.”
The development comes as the Republican-led US House of Representatives was preparing to vote on holding both Clintons in criminal contempt for allegedly defying legal summonses issued by the House Oversight Committee.
Photographs of Bill Clinton appear in Epstein-related files released by the Department of Justice, though the former Democratic president has denied any wrongdoing.
It remains unclear when the depositions will take place. If they proceed, it would mark the first time a former US president has testified before a congressional committee since Gerald Ford did so in 1983.
The House Oversight Committee, chaired by Republicans, approved a motion late last month to hold the Clintons in contempt, with support from several Democrats. At the time, committee chairman James Comer said “no-one is above the law”.
Lawyers for the Clintons had argued that the subpoenas were “unenforceable”, saying the couple had already provided the “limited information” they possessed regarding Epstein. The Clintons also dismissed the summonses as “nothing more than a ploy to attempt to embarrass political rivals, as President Trump has directed”.
On Monday evening, Clinton spokesman Angel Ureña confirmed on X that the couple would appear before the panel.
“They negotiated in good faith,” Ureña wrote in a tweet directed at the House Oversight Committee. “You did not. They told you under oath what they know, but you don’t care.”
He added: “They look forward to setting a precedent that applies to everyone.”
Bill Clinton has never been accused of wrongdoing by survivors of Epstein’s abuse and has repeatedly denied knowing about his criminal activities. Both Clintons have said they previously provided sworn statements to the committee and that they possess no information relevant to the inquiry.
Several photographs released by the justice department show Bill Clinton with Epstein and at the financier’s estate. One image depicts the former president swimming in a pool, while another shows him lying on his back with his hands behind his head in what appears to be a hot tub.
Ureña said when the images were released that they were decades old and that Clinton had cut ties with Epstein long before his crimes became public.
Last month, the Clintons sent a letter to Comer criticising his handling of the investigation. “The decisions you have made, and the priorities you have set as chairman regarding the Epstein investigation, have prevented progress in discovering the facts about the government’s role,” the letter said.
They added: “There is no plausible explanation for what you are doing other than partisan politics.”
Comer has previously noted that the subpoenas were approved on a bipartisan basis, saying: “We communicated with President Clinton’s legal team for months now, giving them opportunity after opportunity to come in, to give us a day, and they continue to delay, delay, delay.”
