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The long-awaited moment of accountability is finally arriving: House Oversight Chairman James Comer announced this week that former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have agreed to appear for transcribed, filmed depositions in the committee’s Jeffrey Epstein probe, scheduled for February 27 and February 26, 2026, respectively. After months of legal foot-dragging and missed dates, the Clintons’ capitulation under the threat of contempt is a vindication for those who insisted the powerful must answer for potential ties to Epstein’s horrific crimes.
This outcome did not happen by accident — it was forced by pressure from a committee that refused to be intimidated by celebrity and influence. The Oversight Committee had issued subpoenas after a subcommittee vote last summer, and when the couple repeatedly declined to cooperate the committee moved toward contempt proceedings, a move that finally extracted compliance. That sequence underscores a simple principle: subpoenas backed by consequences work.
Meanwhile, the committee’s efforts to get to the bottom of Epstein’s network continue beyond the Clintons, as Ghislaine Maxwell’s closed-door deposition looms with reports she intends to invoke her Fifth Amendment rights — even while reportedly seeking clemency as leverage to change her posture. Maxwell’s evasive tactics only deepen public suspicion and make the committee’s mission of transparency all the more urgent; survivors and the country deserve answers, not legal theater.
The Oversight panel has also been pressing the Department of Justice to turn over records, and officials say the DOJ has begun producing Epstein-related documents to the committee, a vital stream of material that could corroborate depositional testimony and reveal previously redacted information. If those records are produced fully and without partisan filtering, they could finally unmask the shadowy web around Epstein and provide survivors with a measure of truth.
Conservatives should applaud Comer’s resolve: this is the kind of bipartisan accountability that restores faith in institutions when elites try to dodge scrutiny. The Clintons’ attempt to frame subpoenas as political gimmicks falls apart when the committee is simply asking the same questions investigators and victims have raised for years; the optics of delay and selective cooperation do not look good on anyone who claims to champion transparency.
Don’t be fooled by calls from the Clintons for a public hearing on their own terms — filmed, transcribed depositions under oath are exactly the sort of clear, accountable process the public needs to judge the credibility of answers. If the former first couple wants the full light of day, they should welcome open scrutiny rather than negotiating loopholes; democracy demands answers, not press releases and prepackaged statements.
Now is the time for Republicans to stay focused and for all lawmakers to insist on full access to records and testimony, no matter how comfortable the political pressures become. If Washington means what it says about equal justice under the law, then these depositions must be more than a moment — they must be the beginning of a broader insistence that no name, no matter how prominent, places someone above the truth.
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