Bill Clinton calls for public hearing on Epstein Testimony

Ema Alice: Former President Clinton on Friday called for a public hearing after he and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said they will testify as part of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

His call for a public hearing comes a day after Hillary Clinton did the same. She is scheduled to testify on Feb. 26, followed by the former president the next day. Both have called on Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) to also have their depositions recorded on video.

“I will not sit idly as they use me as a prop in a closed-door kangaroo court by a Republican Party running scared,” Bill Clinton wrote on the social platform X. “If they want answers, let’s stop the games & do this the right way: in a public hearing, where the American people can see for themselves what this is really about.”

Bill Clinton noted that he called for the “full release” of the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) files related to Epstein and that he agreed to appear before the committee in person.

“But it’s still not enough for Republicans on the House Oversight Committee,” he wrote.

The former president slammed Comer for wanting a camera “only behind closed doors.”

“Who benefits from this arrangement?” Bill Clinton wrote. “It’s not Epstein’s victims, who deserve justice. Not the public, who deserve the truth. It serves only partisan interests. This is not fact-finding, it’s pure politics.”

Comer previously dismissed their request for a closed-door deposition in New York and written testimony. The Clintons agreed to the dates set by Comer after he was prepared to hold a House vote that would consider holding them in contempt of Congress.

Hillary Clinton said Oversight Committee Republicans “ignored” her and her husband after they “told them what we know, under oath.” She pushed back against Comer’s claim that they evaded a deposition.

“If you want this fight, @RepJamesComer, let’s have it—in public,” Hillary Clinton wrote on X. “You love to talk about transparency. There’s nothing more transparent than a public hearing, cameras on. We will be there.”

The Oversight Committee clapped back, posting email exchanges on X between the committee and the Clintons’ lawyers about the terms of the deposition agreement. 

“The Clintons are going to Clinton and try to spin the facts,” the committee wrote. “On Tuesday, at the eleventh hour, their lawyers, Jonathan Skladany and Ashley Callen, said their clients accepted the terms of the depositions.”

The post stated that their terms did not differ from other depositions in the case, including with former Attorney General Bill Barr and former Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta.

The Clintons have repeatedly denied any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes. None of Epstein’s victims have accused Bill Clinton of wrongdoing.

President Trump came to the former president’s defense after years of being an outspoken critic against him and Hillary Clinton, his Democratic opponent in the 2016 presidential election. He said it bothered him that “somebody’s going after Bill Clinton” and that he “still” likes him.

“I liked his behavior toward me,” Trump told anchor Tom Llamas on “NBC Nightly News.” “I thought he got me, he understood me. He was the one who said very famously ‘you don’t want to run against Trump when there were 18 people.’ And Hillary sort of laughed at him.”

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BP/SM