Clinton publicly responds to Epstein case

Xinhua News Agency Former U.S. Democratic President Clinton and his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, have spoken out in recent days.Call for congressional inquiries into the Epstein case to be held in public, rather than behind closed doors, to prevent Republicans from politicizing the issue.

Clinton wrote on social media on the 7th that he would not wait for Republicans to use him as a prop in a closed-door “kangaroo court”. “If they (Republicans) want answers, stop this game and handle it the right way: let the American people witness the truth with their own eyes in public hearings.”

Hillary issued a message on the 6th saying that the couple had told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee what they knew. At the same time, she called on the chairman of the committee, Republican James Comer: “If you want to compete, do it in public.” “You like to talk about ‘transparency’, and there is nothing more transparent than a public hearing with cameras on.”

The Clintons had refused to respond to Cuomo’s subpoena to testify before Congress in the past few months, saying the subpoena issued by the latter was invalid and lacked legal effect. On the 2nd of this month, under pressure from the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, which was about to vote on the two men’s alleged contempt of Congress, the Clintons agreed to go to Congress in person to accept the closed-door investigation of the Epstein case by the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. On the 5th, Cuomo announced that Hillary and Clinton would testify before Congress on the 26th and 27th respectively.

Lawyers for the Clintons said a public hearing “best serves our concerns about fairness,” but that the final decision on the format of the inquiry rests with Cuomo. In an interview with the media on the 4th, Cuomo said that the content of the closed-door inquiry will be made public in the form of audio, video and written records.

Epstein had close contacts with a large number of American political and business celebrities. After being arrested on suspicion of sex crimes, he died in prison in August 2019 and was judged to be a “suicide.” On December 19, 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice began to publish Epstein case documents on its website. The documents include numerous references to former President Clinton. The Clintons claimed they had no knowledge of Epstein’s criminal behavior.

Clinton previously admitted that he flew on Epstein’s plane in the early 2000s for humanitarian work related to the Clinton Foundation, but never visited Epstein’s private island. Hillary Clinton said she had no substantive interaction with Epstein and had never flown on his plane or visited his island.

When Trump ran for president in 2024, he publicly promised that he would release documents related to the Epstein case after taking office, but he has since been slow to cover it up, raising questions from all parties. One widely circulated theory is that Epstein died because he had a “client list” that he used to blackmail high-profile people.

Democrats have accused Republicans of not investigating Trump’s ties to Epstein with the same intensity. According to the Democratic Party, Trump had long-term dealings with Epstein, but was not called to testify. The investigation was used as a weapon against Trump’s political opponents rather than as legitimate oversight. Trump has repeatedly claimed that he has severed ties with Epstein.

The New York Times said that the Clintons’ agreement to testify was “a victory” for Cuomo – successfully shifting the public’s attention from the Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein case to the Democratic Party bosses.

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