Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrive ahead of the 60th inaugural ceremony on Jan. 20, 2025, at the Capitol in Washington.
Melina Mara | Via Reuters
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday challenged Republicans on the House Oversight Committee to take the testimony of her and former President Bill Clinton about sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in public and not in a closed session as those lawmakers plan.
Hillary Clinton made the demand after she and Bill Clinton dropped their efforts to resist subpoenas to testify before that committee, whose Republican leadership had threatened a vote on holding them in contempt of Congress if they refused to appear.
“For six months, we engaged Republicans on the Oversight Committee in good faith,” Hillary Clinton said in a post on X. “We told them what we know, under oath. They ignored all of it. They moved the goalposts and turned accountability into an exercise in distraction.”
“So let’s stop the games. If you want this fight, @RepJamesComer, let’s have it — in public,” Clinton wrote, naming the panel’s chairman.
“You love to talk about transparency. There’s nothing more transparent than a public hearing, cameras on.”
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., told reporters on Tuesday that the Clintons would not be “treated differently than everyone else,” and said the subpoenas for them called for depositions to be taken by the committee, not for a public hearing.
“If they get through the depositions and they still want a public hearing, we’ll try to do something,” Comer said that day.
A spokeswoman for the Oversight Committee, in a statement Thursday to CNBC when asked about Hillary Clinton’s X post, said, “The Clintons are going to Clinton and try to spin the facts since no one is buying their claims. The only ones moving the goalposts are, as usual, the Clintons and their attorneys.”
“The Clintons were issued bipartisan subpoenas for depositions — not a hearing. Republicans and Democrats on the Oversight Committee voted to recommend the House hold the Clintons in contempt of Congress for defying duly issued subpoenas for six months,” the statement said.
“In the wake of facing contempt of Congress proceedings, the Clintons’ attorney finally agreed to filmed, transcribed depositions on February 26 and 27,” the spokeswoman said.
“These depositions are in accordance with House and Committee rules. All witnesses appearing for interviews as part of our Epstein investigation are being treated fairly and consistently. The Committee has filmed interviews with all witnesses, including former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr and U.S. Labor Secretary Alex Acosta — both of whom are Republican witnesses.”