Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, challenged Republican members of the House Oversight Committee investigating Jeffrey Epstein to take their testimony in a public hearing rather than a closed session, as officials originally planned.
Hillary Clinton took to social media to address the committee chair, Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), writing, “You love to talk about transparency. There's nothing more transparent than a public hearing, cameras on."
The demand comes after the couple dropped their efforts to defy subpoenas to testify before the committee, after committee leaders threatened to hold the Clintons in contempt of Congress if they refused to appear.
“For six months, we engaged Republicans on the Oversight Committee in good faith,” Hillary Clinton shared in a post on X. “We told them what we know, under oath. They ignored all of it. They moved the goalposts and turned accountability into an exercise in distraction.”
Rep. Comer clarified to reporters on Feb. 3 that the Clintons would not be “treated differently than everyone else,” affirming that the subpoenas issued to them were for depositions to be taken by the committee, not for a public hearing.
“If they get through the depositions and they still want a public hearing, we’ll try to do something,” Rep. Comer added.
An Oversight Committee spokesperson responded to questions about Hillary Clinton’s social media posts in a statement issued to CNBC, saying that the pair “are going to try to spin the facts since no one is buying their claims. The only ones moving the goalposts are, as usual, the Clintons and their attorneys.”
“The Clintons were issued bipartisan subpoenas for depositions — not a hearing. Republicans and Democrats on the Oversight Committee voted to recommend the House hold the Clintons in contempt of Congress for defying duly issued subpoenas for six months,” the statement added.
