Clintons ask House committee to make Epstein testimony public

Bill and Hillary Clinton are urging the House Oversight Committee to take their testimony in public rather than behind closed doors, arguing that transparency is the best guard against politicization of the panel’s inquiry into Jeffrey Epstein’s connections and how authorities handled information about his crimes.

The Republican-led committee had ordered the former president and former secretary of state to sit for closed-door depositions as part of its Epstein probe. House Republicans had threatened a contempt vote if the Clintons did not appear, and both have agreed to testify.

“Let’s stop the games & do this the right way: in a public hearing,” Bill Clinton wrote on X. Hillary Clinton said the couple had already told the committee “what we know,” adding, “If you want this fight … let’s have it in public.”

Democrats say the Oversight inquiry is being weaponized to target political opponents of former President Donald Trump, a longtime Epstein associate who has not been called to testify. Republicans have framed the probe as an effort to establish accountability for how information about Epstein’s crimes was handled and to examine the financier’s ties to powerful figures.

The Clintons’ push for an open session comes days after the Justice Department released a new tranche of Epstein-related materials—more than three million documents, photos and videos tied to the federal investigation. Epstein, a wealthy financier and convicted sex offender, died by suicide in 2019 while in federal custody after being charged with sex trafficking.

Bill Clinton appears frequently in the newly released files, but no evidence has emerged implicating either Clinton in criminal activity. The former president has acknowledged flying on Epstein’s plane in the early 2000s for Clinton Foundation-related humanitarian work and has said he never visited Epstein’s private island. Hillary Clinton has said she had no meaningful interactions with Epstein, never flew on his plane and never visited the island.

The House Oversight Committee has not said whether it will convert the scheduled depositions into a public hearing. The Clintons’ request underscores the political stakes and high-profile scrutiny surrounding the probe, which touches on a network of elite associations that have fueled years of public speculation—and partisan battles—since Epstein’s death.

By pressing for an open format, the Clintons are seeking to put their testimony on the record in a forum where both parties would question them in view of the public, a departure from closed-door sessions that typically precede any formal hearing. Whether the committee agrees could shape the tenor and trajectory of one of Congress’ most politically sensitive investigations.

By Abdiwahab Ahmed

Axadle Times international–Monitoring.