A Republican-majority committee in the House of Representatives summoned the former president and his wife to clarify their ties to the tycoon accused of sex trafficking.
WASHINGTON.- An important committee in the US Congress, with a Republican majority, issued subpoenas for statements from former President Bill Clinton and his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as part of the investigation into the case of financier Jeffrey Epstein, who is accused of sex trafficking.
Republican Congressman James Comer said that the former president has been summoned for October 14 and his wife for October 9 to clarify their ties to Jeffrey Epstein, a millionaire financier found dead in his cell in 2019before he could be tried for sex trafficking.
It is unknown whether the Clintons will attend this event, which is highly unusual in the United States.
«As you yourself acknowledged, you flew on Jeffrey Epstein’s private plane four times in 2002 and 2003,» Comer, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, wrote to former President Clinton. «During one of these trips, you were even photographed receiving a ‘massage’ from one of Epstein’s victims,» he added.
«It has also been claimed that you pressured Vanity Fair not to publish allegations of sex trafficking against your ‘good friend’ Epstein, and there are conflicting reports about whether you ever visited Epstein’s island,» he said, referring to a small Caribbean Island where, according to some women, sexual abuse took place.
The office of the 78-year-old former Democratic president did not comment on the subpoena.
Comer also addressed Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential candidate in the 2016 election won by Trump. «Her family appears to have had close ties to both Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell,» who is serving a 20-year prison sentence handed down in 2021 for recruiting minors for Epstein.
Bill Clinton was one of several celebrities who knew Epstein before the criminal investigation against him in Florida became public two decades ago. Clinton was never accused of wrongdoing by any of the women who say Epstein abused them.
One of Epstein’s victims, Virginia Giuffre, once gave an interview in which she described flying in a helicopter with Clinton and flirting with Trump, but later said in a statement that those things had not actually happened and were mistakes made by the journalist. Clinton previously stated through a spokesperson that, although he traveled on Epstein’s jet, he never visited his homes and had no knowledge of his crimes.
A collection of letters given to Epstein in a leather-bound album for his 50th birthday in 2003 reflected a period of his life before his first arrest. That book included contributions from Trump and Clinton, among dozens of others, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Trump has denied a report published in the Journal that claimed he contributed a sexually suggestive note and drawing. He has sued the news agency for defamation.
In addition, the president claims to have distanced himself from Epstein, who was part of his New York circle when he was a real estate mogul, because he «stole» employees from the spa at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
For his part, Clinton’s spokesperson stated that the former president was unaware of Epstein’s crimes at the time.
In addition, the committee subpoenaed the Justice Department on Tuesday to produce files from the sex trafficking investigation against the tycoon. This investigation is part of Congress and, according to lawmakers, could reveal links to President Donald Trump and other former senior officials. It was the Democrats who pushed for this initiative. They were joined by some Republicans.
The other officials who will be summoned alongside the Clintons are former attorneys general Merrick Garland and William Barr, former FBI directors James Comey and Robert Mueller, and former attorneys general Jeff Sessions, Loretta Lynch, Eric Holder, and Alberto Gonzales «for testimony related to horrific crimes perpetrated by Jeffrey Epstein.»
Trump, under pressure
US President Trump is under pressure from his conservative base, which accuses him of a lack of transparency on the case.
The decision shows how, even with lawmakers out of Washington for the summer recess, interest in the Epstein case remains high.
Trump has repeatedly tried to move past the Justice Department’s decision not to release a full report on the investigation, but lawmakers from both major political parties, as well as many in the Republican president’s political base, have refused to let it go.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton arrive ahead of the 60th presidential inauguration at the Rotunda of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Monday, January 20, 2025. Kenny Holston – Pool The New York Times
Since Epstein’s death in 2019 in a New York jail cell while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, conservative conspiracy theorists have fueled theories about what information investigators gathered about Epstein and who else might have been involved.
Republican lawmakers on the committee referred to this line of questioning last month when they began issuing subpoenas to the Clintons, both Democrats, and demanded all communications between President Joe Biden’s Democratic administration and the Department of Justice regarding Epstein.
For weeks, the White House has been trying to mitigate the controversy.
The number two at the Department of Justice, Todd Blanche, Trump’s former personal lawyer, met with Ghislaine Maxwell at the end of July to question her.
Epstein’s ex-partner was subsequently transferred to a Texas prison with less stringent detention conditions, a decision condemned by Democrats, who accused the Trump administration of favoring her.
The commission headed by Comer had planned to question Ghislaine Maxwell on August 11, but the hearing has been postponed indefinitely.
Agencias AP, AFP y diario The New York Times