Clintons agree to testify in House Epstein probe, Rep. Comer says they must provide locked-in dates

In a dramatic reversal, former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton agreed on Monday to testify before the House Oversight Committee, ending a months-long standoff over their ties to convicted pedophile sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

 However, the agreement remains preliminary and not fully finalized. House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) said on Monday that the Clintons’ offer “lacks clarity” and that no specific dates for the depositions have been provided.

Comer has also not yet agreed to drop the pending contempt proceedings, noting that he plans to clarify the terms before discussing next steps with committee members. The contempt vote in the full House could still move forward as early as this week unless further details are resolved.

The Clinton legal team had sent an email to the House Oversight Committee earlier on Monday stating they “accept the terms” of the letter and would appear for depositions on mutually agreeable dates.” This was a significant reversal from their previous stance, where the Clintons had labeled the subpoenas “legally invalid.”

 

The decision also comes just days before the full House of Representatives was scheduled to vote on holding the couple in criminal contempt of Congress. Comer had aggressively pursued the subpoenas, arguing that the Clintons’ previous refusals were an “affront to the American people’s desire for transparency.”

The House Oversight Committee Chairman also noted that the “only reason” they are cooperating now is because the threat of criminal contempt became imminent.

For months, the Clintons had resisted the committee’s demands, with their legal team labeling the subpoenas both invalid and “politically motivated.” However, as the threat of potential fines or even incarceration loomed with the upcoming contempt vote, the couple’s spokesperson, Angel Ureña, confirmed they would appear.

 

“They negotiated in good faith. [Comer] did not,” Ureña wrote in a social media post on Monday. “But the former President and former Secretary of State will be there. They look forward to setting a precedent that applies to everyone.”

The standoff intensified after Chairman Comer rejected the Clintons’ initial “compromise” proposal, which he dismissed as “unreasonable.” Under that offer, the former Democrat president would have sat for a four-hour voluntary, transcribed interview in New York, while Hillary would have provided a sworn written declaration rather than appearing in person.

Nonetheless, Comer blocked the deal, insisting on formal, sworn depositions to ensure the couple cannot “run out the clock” or evade specific lines of questioning as easily as they might in a voluntary setting.

 

The push for testimony saw surprising pockets of bipartisan support. While most Democrats viewed the investigation as a partisan “retribution campaign” linked to the 2026 political cycle, several broke ranks during the initial committee votes. Nine Democrats voted to hold Bill in contempt, and three Democrats voted to hold Hillary in contempt.

“The nine Democrats who voted in favor of the Bill Clinton resolution are Reps. Maxwell Frost of Florida, Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois, Summer Lee of Pennsylvania, Stephen Lynch and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, Emily Randall of Washington, Lateefah Simon of California, Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico, and Rashida Tlaib of Michican. Lee, Stansbury and Tlaib also voted for the Hillary Clinton resolution,” TIME Magazine reported.

These members argued that full transparency regarding the Epstein files outweighs party loyalty.

 

The Oversight Committee is currently probing the federal government’s purported mismanagement of the Epstein case, including his alleged suicide in a New York jail cell in 2019. Bill’s name has appeared in various flight logs and documents related to Epstein, though the former president has consistently denied any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes.

Hillary’s ties to Ghislaine Maxwell — Epstein’s long-time confidante and his convicted “madam” accomplice — span both professional and personal circles.

Maxwell’s presence at high-profile family events, such as Chelsea Clinton’s 2010 wedding, was mirrored by her inclusion as an honored guest at the Clinton Global Initiative in 2013. This proximity extended to the federal level as well, notably when Maxwell’s nephew, Alexander Djerassi, served as a staffer in the State Department during Hillary Clinton’s tenure as Secretary of State.

Comer has made it clear that a vague promise to appear is insufficient. He is demanding that the Clintons’ legal team provide specific, locked-in dates for the depositions by the end of Monday. Until firm dates are in writing, Comer is treating their agreement as a “delay tactic.”