Home Republicans are planning to rattle smooth-talking ex-President Invoice Clinton throughout a deposition about his ties to Jeffrey Epstein subsequent week by blitzing him with questions on his notorious photograph within the disgraced financier’s scorching tub, insiders instructed The Submit.
“Even one thing so simple as that may solicit reactions,” one GOP aide instructed The Submit of lawmakers’ plan for the closed-door, taped interviews with the previous president and spouse Hillary Clinton in Chappaqua that kick off Thursday.
“They’re going to carry up among the photos within the scorching tub.”
The blockbuster Clinton depositions with the Home Oversight Committee comply with cascading revelations from the Epstein recordsdata together with the gorgeous arrest Thursday of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor over allegations that surfaced within the latest Division of Justice doc dump.
It’s a part of an effort to “get some layups early” to attempt to “knock him off his ft. He can’t say no. Everybody is aware of it’s him,” the supply stated.
It’s a technique the GOP hopes will immediate Clinton to say one thing both revelatory or politically damaging because the Epstein scandal continues to unfold.
The damning images additionally embrace bubba lounging together with his fingers behind his head close to an unidentified girl whose face is blacked out.
One other snap exhibits a ruddy-faced Clinton together with his arm round an unidentified blonde girl perched in his lap. And different photos present him sporting a pink hoodie alongside a lady whose face is blacked out, or grinning with Epstein whereas each put on wildly pattered silk shirts.
“The Clintons’ testimony is vital to understanding Epstein and [Ghislaine] Maxwell’s intercourse trafficking community and the methods they sought to curry favor and affect to defend themselves from scrutiny,” Oversight panel Chairman Rep. James Comer (R-Kentucky) instructed The Submit.
The political energy couple — who haven’t been formally accused of wrongdoing in reference to Epstein — have lengthy tried to downplay their ties to the disgraced financier.
The committee additionally goals to grill the couple on Ghislaine Maxwell’s position within the early origins of their Clinton World Initiative – connecting the Clintons’ signature international do-gooder campaign with Epstein money.
Maxwell, convicted in 2021 of sexual abuse of minors, was concerned within the group’s 2004 launch, in keeping with the DOJ doc dump. She was additionally an “honored visitor” at a September 2013 CGI occasion.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who’s slated to testify Feb. 26 whereas Invoice is scheduled for the next day, might be compelled to defend her latest feedback to the BBC that the couple “haven’t any hyperlinks” to Epstein.
“Their testimony might also inform how Congress can strengthen legal guidelines to higher fight human trafficking. Our aim for this investigation is easy: we search to ship transparency and accountability for the American individuals and for survivors.”
Panel member Rep. Nancy Mace (R-South Carolina), who has crusaded towards sexual predators, plans to drill down on Hillary’s Feb. 17 interview with the BBC. Questioning might be led by committee workers, however lawmakers are entitled to attend and ask questions.
Mace telegraphed one other certainly one of her questions on-line in February in response to a Clinton put up: “Have been you ever alone with any of the ladies you have been seen photographed with?”
Each depositions will happen within the Clintons’ adopted residence city of Chappaqua in Westchester County “as an lodging for his or her schedules,” in keeping with a committee spokeswoman.
That comes regardless of Hillary’s declare that, “I simply need it to be truthful – I would like everyone handled the identical means.” Whereas it isn’t unprecedented for committee depositions to happen out of DC – Epstein patron billionaire Les Wexner, 88, did his at residence in Ohio – witnesses sometimes should courageous the media and the general public to look in a congressional workplace constructing.
Invoice can’t depend on the committee’s Democrats to throw him a life raft.
9 of them voted to carry him in contempt in January when his legal professionals have been resisting a subpoena. Three voted to do the identical in Hillary Clinton’s case.
However the former president, who had no fewer than six legal professionals listed on correspondence to the committee, could have his personal secret weapon.
His lead lawyer is Ashley Callen, former counsel for Home Speaker Mike Johnson, now with Jenner & Block LLC. She is aware of key committee members and workers from her time within the Home of Representatives
Longtime Clinton lawyer David Kendall, of Williams & Connolly LLC, can be representing him.
Clinton’s workplace didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark. He posted on X this month throughout a standoff over the phrases of the deposition, saying he refused to be “a prop in a closed-door kangaroo courtroom.”
“I’ve referred to as for the complete launch of the Epstein recordsdata. I’ve supplied a sworn assertion of what I do know. And simply this week, I’ve agreed to look in individual earlier than the committee. Nevertheless it’s nonetheless not sufficient for Republicans on the Home Oversight Committee.”
The Clintons’ solutions might be carefully watched in DC. The couple have their very own reputations to guard, and revelations from the recordsdata have taken down a number of figures within the US and overseas.
The committee is predicted to rapidly launch the complete video deposition to the general public, permitting individuals to guage for themselves how one of many nation’s strongest {couples} holds up beneath scrutiny.
