Bill and Hillary Clinton will testify before a Republican-led House investigation into the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a staffer said, a move that could head off planned contempt votes against the former president and former secretary of state.
The House Oversight Committee last week recommended holding the Clintons in contempt for initially refusing to appear in person about their interactions with Epstein, who died in custody in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. The House Rules Committee had advanced resolutions accusing the pair of defying subpoenas to testify under oath.
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“The former president and former secretary of state will be there. They look forward to setting a precedent that applies to everyone,” the staffer said.
House Speaker Mike Johnson welcomed the development but did not say whether chamber leaders would cancel the contempt vote. “We expect everyone to comply with Congress’s subpoenas,” he said.
The Clintons had offered to cooperate through sworn written statements and argued the subpoenas lacked a clear legislative purpose. Republicans countered that the couple’s past links to Epstein, including Bill Clinton’s use of the financier’s private jet in the early 2000s after leaving office, justified in-person questioning.
Bill Clinton has acknowledged flying on Epstein’s plane for Clinton Foundation–related humanitarian work but said he never visited Epstein’s private island, expressed regret about the relationship, and said he knew nothing of Epstein’s criminal activity. Hillary Clinton has said she had no meaningful interactions with Epstein, never flew on his plane, and never visited his island.
Neither the Clintons nor Donald Trump, a longtime Epstein associate who has not been called to testify, has been accused of criminal wrongdoing related to Epstein. Democrats say the House probe is being weaponized to attack Trump’s political opponents rather than to conduct legitimate oversight; they also note Trump spent months trying to block the disclosure of investigative files. The Justice Department last week released what it said would be the final batch of documents tied to the Epstein investigation.
The looming contempt fight had threatened to expose divisions among Democrats. Some have argued no public figure should be beyond scrutiny as lawmakers seek to understand the full scope of Epstein’s crimes. Others feared the resolutions would advance a partisan strategy to deflect attention from Trump’s past contacts with Epstein.
Across the Atlantic, the fallout from the so-called Epstein files intensified. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is set to chair Cabinet as London’s Metropolitan Police assess reports of alleged misconduct in a public office involving Peter Mandelson, a peer and former business secretary in Gordon Brown’s government.
The force said it had received a number of reports after millions of pages were released and would review them to determine whether they meet the criminal threshold for investigation. A UK government spokesperson said police should determine whether to investigate and that the government stands ready to assist.
The documents released by the U.S. Department of Justice apparently showed Mandelson passing information to Epstein while serving as a cabinet minister, including details of internal discussions after the global financial crisis. Bank statements from 2003 and 2004 appeared to show payments totaling $75,000 to Mandelson, and Epstein is also said to have paid for an osteopathy course for Mandelson’s husband. Mandelson has denied wrongdoing, saying he has “no record or recollection” of such payments.
Starmer asked Cabinet Secretary Chris Wormald to conduct an urgent review of all available information regarding Mandelson’s contacts with Epstein. Former prime minister Gordon Brown said he requested an investigation into the disclosure of “confidential and market sensitive information” during the crisis. Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the prime minister, told Parliament that Mandelson “must account for his actions and conduct,” noting the details were unknown to the Labour Party and the government before the documents were released.
Mandelson resigned his Labour membership Sunday night. He remains a peer on leave from the House of Lords and has said he does not intend to return. In an interview with The Times, he said that “hiding under a rock would be a disproportionate response to a handful of misguided historical emails, which I deeply regret sending.”
The files have also referenced Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, with images appearing to show him in close proximity to an unidentified woman. Separately, Sarah Ferguson’s international charity announced it would close for the foreseeable future.
The Epstein affair continues to cast a long shadow over Washington and London, entangling some of the most prominent names in politics and underscoring the partisan and institutional battles still unfolding years after his death.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
