Attorneys representing Bill and Hillary Clinton made a last-ditch offer in an try to forestall a House vote to hold them in contempt of Congress, however had been rejected by House Oversight Chair James Comer.
“It has been nearly six months since your clients first received the Committee’s subpoena, more than three months since the original date of their depositions, and nearly three weeks since they failed to appear for their depositions commensurate with the Committee’s lawful subpoenas,” Comer wrote. “Your clients’ desire for special treatment is both frustrating and an affront to the American people’s desire for transparency.”
The correspondence, obtained by NCS, reveals that the Clintons’ workforce has been in the hunt for an off-ramp for days. Attorneys for the previous president and former secretary of state have been in dialogue with the Republican-led committee a number of occasions since lawmakers from each events voted in January to maintain the Clintons in contempt for refusing to seem for in-person depositions as a part of its investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.
By rejecting the Clintons’ most up-to-date offer, Comer has all however ensured that the House will maintain a last vote this week on the contempt resolutions.
According to the letter dated January 31, the Clintons’ attorneys laid out the phrases underneath which the previous president would sit for a voluntary, transcribed interview. He would sit for four-hours in New York City for an interview restricted to the scope of the Epstein probe, they stated. Lawmakers from each events and their employees might ask questions and the attorneys stated each the Clintons and the committee might have their very own transcriber current, in accordance to the letter.
Even although the attorneys continued to push for the panel to drop its subpoena for Hillary Clinton’s testimony, they stated she might submit a second sworn declaration or seem for an in-person interview in an identical format to her husband.
In alternate, Clinton attorneys Ashley Callen and David E. Kendall requested Comer to withdraw the subpoenas and contempt resolutions in opposition to them.
Bill Clinton has repeatedly denied wrongdoing associated the Epstein, the late convicted intercourse offender.
Comer, for his half, rejected the offer from the Clintons’ attorneys as “unreasonable” and stated he couldn’t settle for such phrases.
He couldn’t agree, he stated, to altering the interview from a sworn deposition to a voluntary interview, in addition to rejected the way in which during which the attorneys sought to restrict the scope of the interview. Comer famous if the attorneys had supplied a voluntary interview when the previous president first obtained his subpoena for testimony in August, the scenario might have performed out in another way.
“But given that he has already failed to appear for a deposition and has refused for several months to provide the Committee with in-person testimony, the Committee cannot simply have faith that President Clinton will not refuse to answer questions at a transcribed interview, resulting in the Committee being right back where it is today,” Comer wrote.
Clinton, he added, would have incentive to try to “run out the clock” if the committee agreed to a agency, four-hour time restrict for an interview. And the Republican chairman questioned why the Clintons wished to have their very own transcriber current, if an official courtroom reporter supplied by the panel could be current.
In his letter, Comer referenced how the method performed out for former President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, who agreed to sit for an in-person deposition, not a voluntary transcribed interview, following a committee vote to maintain him in contempt.
Ultimately, Comer additionally rejected the proposals laid out for Hillary Clinton.