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By STEPHEN GROVES
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Invoice Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton finalized an settlement with Home Republicans Tuesday to testify in a Home investigation into Jeffrey Epstein this month, bowing to the specter of a contempt of Congress vote in opposition to them.
Hillary Clinton will testify earlier than the Home Oversight Committee on Feb. 26 and Invoice Clinton will seem on Feb. 27. It is going to mark the primary time that lawmakers have compelled a former president to testify.
The association comes after months of negotiating between the 2 sides as Republicans sought to make the Clintons a focus in a Home committee’s investigation into Epstein, a convicted intercourse offender who killed himself in a New York jail cell in 2019, and Ghislaine Maxwell, his former girlfriend.
“We stay up for now questioning the Clintons as a part of our investigation into the horrific crimes of Epstein and Maxwell, to ship transparency and accountability for the American individuals and for survivors,” Rep. James Comer, the chair of the Home Oversight Committee, mentioned in a press release.
For months, the Clintons resisted subpoenas from the committee, however Home Republicans — with assist from a couple of Democrats — had superior legal contempt of Congress costs to a possible vote this week. It threatened the Clintons with the potential for substantial fines and even jail time if they’d been convicted.
Home Speaker Mike Johnson mentioned Tuesday that any effort to carry them in contempt of Congress had been “on pause.”
Even because the Clintons bowed to the strain, the negotiating between GOP lawmakers and attorneys for the Clintons was marked by mistrust as they wrangled over the main points of the deposition. They agreed to have the depositions transcribed and recorded on video, Comer mentioned.
The belligerence is prone to solely develop as Republicans relish the chance to grill longtime political foes underneath oath.
Clinton, like numerous different high-powered males, had a well-documented relationship with Epstein within the late Nineteen Nineties and early 2000s. He has not been accused of wrongdoing in his interactions with the late financier.
Each Clintons have mentioned they’d no data that Epstein was sexually abusing underage women.
The Clintons argued the subpoenas for his or her testimony had been invalid and provided to submit sworn declarations on their restricted data of Epstein’s crimes. However as Comer threatened to proceed with contempt of Congress costs, they started on the lookout for an off-ramp.
Each Clintons have remained extremely important of how Comer has dealt with the Epstein investigation and argue that he’s extra targeted on bringing them in for testimony somewhat than holding the Trump administration accountable for the way it has dealt with the launch of its recordsdata on Epstein.
Nonetheless, the specter of a vote on contempt costs raised the potential for Congress to make use of one in all its most extreme punishments in opposition to a former president for the primary time. Traditionally, Congress has proven deference to former presidents. None has ever been compelled to testify earlier than lawmakers, though a couple of have voluntarily achieved so.
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