Former US president Bill Clinton and his wife, former US secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton, are to testify in a US House of Representatives investigation surrounding deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a spokesman for the former president said, heading off a potential vote to hold the couple in contempt.
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.
Meanwhile, a court today is due to hear a request to block access to investigative files linked to Epstein after victims said their names had not been redacted.
Photo: AFP
The US Department of Justice last week released what it said would be the final batch of pages, photographs and videos from the Epstein files, adding fuel to a political drama that has put pressure on US President Donald Trump, but the department was left scrambling after names of alleged victims — who were supposed to be anonymized — were left unredacted.
In a letter to judges, Brad Edwards and Brittany Henderson from the Florida legal firm Edwards Henderson cited an e-mail published in the cache of documents “listing 32 minor child victims, with only one name redacted and 31 left visible.”
Another woman said that her full address had been published in the files.
The lawyers requested an “immediate takedown” of the government Web site showing the files.
District Judge Richard Berman said in a short order said that he would hold a hearing today, adding: “I am not certain how helpful I can be.”
The justice department on Sunday said that it was “working around the clock” to make further redactions to the files after New York Times journalists had found dozens of naked photographs that include people’s faces.
Those photographs have since been largely removed or redacted, the Times reported.
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 couple had originally refused to appear before lawmakers examining how authorities handled earlier investigations into the disgraced financier, who had connections and correspondence with the world’s business and political elite, but Clinton spokesman Angel Urena said on social media that “the former President and former Secretary of State will be there. They look forward to setting a precedent that applies to everyone.”
Democrats say the probe is being weaponized to attack political opponents of Trump — himself a longtime Epstein associate who has not been called to testify — rather than to conduct legitimate oversight.
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 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.
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