Clintons to testify before US House Epstein investigation
· RTE.ieFormer US president Bill Clinton and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton will testify in a congressional investigation into the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a staffer has said.
The decision could divert a planned vote in the Republican-led House of Representatives to hold the two prominent Democrats in contempt, which could lead to criminal charges.
The House Oversight Committee recommended last week that they be held in contempt for refusing to testify about their relationship with Epstein.
The Clintons had offered to cooperate with the panel but had refused to appear in person, saying the investigation was a partisan exercise aimed at protecting Republican President Donald Trump.
The Clintons' deputy chief of staff, Angel Urena, said: "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."
House Speaker Mike Johnson welcomed the news but did not say whether the chamber would drop its planned contempt vote.
"That’s a good development," he said.
"We expect everyone to comply with congress’s subpoenas," he added.
The House Rules Committee had advanced resolutions accusing the Clintons of defying subpoenas to appear in person to explain their links to Epstein, who died in custody in 2019.
The Epstein affair continues to cast a long shadow over Washington, entangling some of the most prominent names in US politics and highlighting the sharp partisan battles that have shaped the scandal.
Democrats say the probe is being weaponised to attack political opponents of US President Donald Trump - himself a longtime Epstein associate who has not been called to testify - rather than to conduct legitimate oversight.
Mr Trump spent months trying to block the disclosure of investigative files linked to Epstein, who moved in elite circles for years, cultivating ties with billionaires, politicians, academics and celebrities.
Neither Mr Trump nor the Clintons have been accused of criminal wrongdoing related to Epstein's activities.
In letters where they initially refused to appear in Washington, the Clintons had argued that the subpoenas were invalid because they lacked a clear legislative purpose.
Republicans say the Democratic couple's past links to the business tycoon, including Mr Clinton's use of his private jet in the early 2000s, justify in-person questioning under oath.
Instead, the couple submitted sworn written statements describing their knowledge of Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking.
Mr Clinton flew on Epstein's plane several times in the early 2000s after leaving office.
He acknowledged flying on Epstein's plane for Clinton Foundation-related humanitarian work, but said he never visited his private island.
He has expressed regret about the relationship and said he knew nothing about Epstein's criminal activity.
Ms Clinton said she had no meaningful interactions with Epstein, never flew on his plane and never visited his island.
The contempt vote and its targeting of the Clintons could have exposed divisions among congressional Democrats.
Some Democrats have privately acknowledged that their party has long argued no one should be beyond scrutiny in efforts to uncover the full scope of Epstein's crimes.
But others feared that advancing the contempt resolutions would have played into a partisan strategy to shift attention away from Mr Trump's past contacts with Epstein.
Meanwhile UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is set to chair cabinet as police assess accusations that Peter Mandelson leaked sensitive information from the centre of government to Epstein.
The Metropolitan Police are reviewing reports of alleged misconduct in a public office after millions of pages were released as part of the so-called Epstein files.
It comes after files released by the US Department of Justice apparently showed Mr Mandelson passing information to Epstein while the peer was a cabinet minister in Gordon Brown's government.
The prime minister called for his former ambassador to Washington to quit the House of Lords, with Downing Street saying Mr Starmer believes he should "not be a member ... or use the title".
He has tasked the country's top civil servant with carrying out a review.
The documents indicate Epstein was sent details of internal discussions from the centre of the UK government after the global financial crisis.
Mr Mandelson, the then-business secretary, appeared to tell Epstein he would lobby ministers over a tax on bankers' bonuses in 2009 and to confirm an imminent bailout package for the the day before it was announced in 2010.
Bank statements from 2003 and 2004 appeared to show he received payments totalling $75,000 (€63,500) from the financier.
Epstein is also said to have paid for an osteopathy course for Mr Mandelson's husband.
The Metropolitan Police said yesterday that they had received "a number of reports relating to alleged misconduct in a public office" after the files were released and that they would be reviewed to determine if they meet the criminal threshold for investigation.
A UK government spokesperson said: "It is right for the police to determine whether to investigate and the government stands ready to provide whatever support and assistance the police need."
Downing Street earlier said Mr Starmer had asked Cabinet Secretary Chris Wormald to conduct "an urgent review" looking at "all available information regarding Mandelson's contacts with Epstein during his period as a government minister".
Former prime minister Gordon Brown said he had asked Mr Wormald to investigate the disclosure of "confidential and market sensitive information" during the global financial crisis.
Nick Macpherson, former permanent secretary to the treasury, suggested in a social media post that then-chancellor Alistair Darling had suspicions about leaks at the time.
"Alistair Darling and the official treasury were always aware that investment banks had an inside track to Number 10," he posted on BlueSky.
"But the brazen nature of that inside track is rather breathtaking," he added.
Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the prime minister, told the House of Commons yesterday that Mr Mandelson "must account for his actions and conduct".
He said the information emerging in recent days had been unknown to both the Labour Party and the government before the files were released.
"It is an understatement to say that his decision to continue a close relationship with a convicted paedophile, including discussing private government business, falls far below the standards expected of any minister," he said.
On Sunday night, Mr Mandelson resigned his Labour membership and said he had "no record or recollection" of alleged financial payments made to him by Epstein.
Though this means he is still a peer, he has been on leave from the House of Lords since he took up his post in Washington and reportedly has no plans to return.
Mr Mandelson suggested he did not want to fully exit public life in an interview with The Times, saying that "hiding under a rock would be a disproportionate response to a handful of misguided historical emails, which I deeply regret sending".
He told the newspaper that none of the recent downloads of Epstein files "indicate wrongdoing or misdemeanour on my part".
Britain's King Charles has been urged to contact lawyers representing a woman who claims to have been sent to the UK by Epstein for a sexual encounter with his brother Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.
The former prince has also featured in the documents on a number of occasions, including images which appear to show him crouched over an unidentified woman who is lying on the floor.
Mr Mountbatten-Windsor's former wife Sarah Ferguson's international charity announced it would close for the foreseeable future.