Former US President Bill Clinton and his wife, Hillary Clinton, are set to testify before the House Oversight Committee in the US Congress as part of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, The New York Times reported on Sunday.
President Clinton's deputy chief of staff, Angel Ureña, confirmed the reports with a post on X. "They negotiated in good faith, you did not. They told you under oath what they know, but you don’t care. But the former President and former Secretary of State will be there. They look forward to setting a precedent that applies to everyone," he wrote.
The decision comes after the House was set to vote to hold them in criminal contempt of Congress for rejecting multiple demands for testimony from the committee's Republican chairman, Representative James R. Comer of Kentucky.
"After defying lawful subpoenas, Bill and Hillary Clinton are trying to dodge contempt by requesting special treatment. The Clintons are not above the law," said the committee in a statement on X.
House Speaker Mike Johnson welcomed the news but did not say whether the chamber would drop its planned contempt vote, according to Reuters. “That’s a good development," he said. "We expect everyone to comply with Congress’s subpoenas.”
Clinton flew on Epstein's plane several times in the early 2000s after leaving office. He has expressed regret about the relationship and said he knew nothing about Epstein's criminal activity.
First US president to appear before Congress since 1983
Clinton will become the first US president since 1983 to appear before Congress, and the first one to do so to testify in an ongoing investigation.
According to The New York Times, the last time this happened was when President Gerald R. Ford did so to discuss the 1987 bicentennial of the Constitution's enactment.
When President Trump was subpoenaed in 2022 over the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2022, he sued the panel to try to block it. The decision was finally withdrawn in that instance.
Reuters contributed to this report.