Former U.S. President Bill Clinton on Friday called for a public hearing in connection with the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Bill Clinton’s statement came one day after Hillary Clinton made a similar demand for transparency. Hillary Clinton is scheduled to testify before the committee on Feb. 26, with the former president set to appear the following day. Both have urged Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) to conduct their depositions in a public setting and to ensure the proceedings are recorded on video.

“I will not sit idly as they use me as a prop in a closed-door kangaroo court by a Republican Party running scared,” Bill Clinton wrote on the social media platform X. “If they want answers, let’s stop the games and do this the right way: in a public hearing, where the American people can see for themselves what this is really about.”

The former president reiterated his call for the full public release of Department of Justice files related to Epstein and confirmed that he had agreed to testify in person before the committee. However, he criticized Republicans on the Oversight Committee for insisting on closed-door proceedings.

“Who benefits from this arrangement?” Clinton asked. “It’s not Epstein’s victims, who deserve justice. Not the public, who deserve the truth. It serves only partisan interests. This is not fact-finding, it’s pure politics.”

Committee Chair Comer had previously rejected the Clintons’ request to provide written testimony or to conduct the depositions behind closed doors in New York. The Clintons ultimately agreed to Comer’s proposed dates after the committee prepared to advance a House vote that could have held them in contempt of Congress.

Comer later stated on X that the committee would hold a public hearing after the depositions, emphasizing that the investigation would proceed under committee rules rather than at the Clintons’ direction. “Depositions are on video for all to see,” Comer wrote.

Clinton spokesperson Angel Ureña said Friday that Comer had “finally stopped hiding and accepted the offer of a public hearing,” adding that the Clintons welcomed the opportunity to answer questions publicly.

“They look forward to hearing his questions and answering them in a public setting where every American can hear the exchange and draw their own conclusions,” Ureña said.

Hillary Clinton on Thursday accused Oversight Committee Republicans of ignoring testimony she and her husband had already provided under oath. She also rejected Comer’s claim that the Clintons had attempted to evade depositions.

“If you want this fight, @RepJamesComer, let’s have it—in public,” Hillary Clinton wrote on X. “You love to talk about transparency. There’s nothing more transparent than a public hearing, cameras on. We will be there.”

The Oversight Committee responded by releasing email correspondence on X between committee staff and the Clintons’ legal team regarding the terms of the depositions. The committee said the conditions agreed to by the Clintons did not differ from those applied to other witnesses in the investigation, including former Attorney General Bill Barr and former Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta.

The Clintons have consistently denied any knowledge of Epstein’s criminal activities. None of Epstein’s victims have accused Bill Clinton of wrongdoing.

In a notable development, President Donald Trump publicly defended the former president, despite years of political rivalry. Trump said it troubled him that Bill Clinton was being targeted and added that he still held a favorable view of him.

“I liked his behavior toward me,” Trump told NBC News anchor Tom Llamas. “I thought he understood me. He was the one who said very famously, ‘You don’t want to run against Trump.’”

As the scheduled testimony approaches, the controversy has raised broader questions about whether Congress is prepared to confront elite accountability in the Epstein case—or whether the investigation will remain mired in partisan spectacle rather than delivering clarity, justice, and transparency for the public and for Epstein’s victims. (ILKHA)