Hillary Clinton tells Republicans to 'stop the games' as she vows to publicly testify on Epstein
Mrs Clinton and her husband Bill will go before lawmakers to testify on all they know about disgraced paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein as part of a US House of Representatives investigation
Former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has hit back at Republican claims that she has not been engaging with their enquiries into Jeffrey Epstein.
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Mrs Clinton and her husband Bill will go before lawmakers at the end of the month to testify on all they know about disgraced paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein as part of a US House of Representatives investigation.
It comes after threats from Republicans to find the Democratic pair in contempt of Congress amid claims that they were refusing to appear before the House.
Bill Clinton's relationship with Epstein has reemerged as a focal point for Republicans amid the push for a reckoning over Epstein, who killed himself in 2019 in a New York jail cell as he faced sex trafficking charges.
Mr Clinton, like a bevvy of other high-powered men, had a well-documented relationship with Epstein in the late 1990s and early 2000s. He has not been accused of wrongdoing in his interactions with the late financier.
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Mrs Clinton has revealed that they had "told them what we know under oath" and had engaged with Republicans for six months on the investigation.
She wrote on X: "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.
"You love to talk about transparency. There’s nothing more transparent than a public hearing, cameras on.
"We will be there."
After the Clintons were both subpoenaed in August by the House Oversight Committee, their attorney tried to argue against the validity of the subpoena. However, as Representative James Comer, the chair of the House Oversight Committee, threatened to begin contempt of Congress proceedings, they started negotiating towards a compromise.
The Clintons remained highly critical of Mr Comer's decision, saying he was bringing politics into the investigation while failing to hold the Trump administration accountable for delays in producing the Department of Justice's case files on Epstein.
Still, the prospect of a contempt vote raised the potential for Congress to use one of its most severe punishments against a former president for the first time.
Historically, Congress has given deference to former presidents. None has ever been forced to testify before lawmakers, although a few have voluntarily done so.
The Republican Oversight Committee responded to Mrs Clinton by saying that they are trying to "spin the facts", adding that they accepted the terms of the depositions at "the eleventh hour" on Tuesday.
They wrote on X: "These terms are no different than any other deposition we have held on this case—even with Republicans like former AG Bill Barr and Secretary Alex Acosta.
"Then they pretended that we were moving the goalpost when they received, along with the subpoenas, the House deposition guidance that explicitly mentions video recordings.
"We are not going to debate the meaning of the word 'is.' We are going to get answers for the American people. The full truth."