By Nolan D. McCaskill and Katharine Jackson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A Republican-led congressional committee is seeking testimony from former Democratic President Bill Clinton as part of its investigation into the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, its chairman said Tuesday.
Representative James Comer of Kentucky, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, told reporters the panel was working on arranging a closed-door interview with Clinton.
“Public reporting, survivor testimony and official documents show that Bill Clinton had far closer ties to Epstein” than President Donald Trump, Comer said. “We’re working to bring former President Clinton in for a deposition.”
A representative for Clinton did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The committee has been reviewing the federal government’s handling of Epstein’s case, releasing tens of thousands of pages of documents, including files from Epstein’s estate.
“The evidence we’ve gathered does not implicate President Trump in any way,” Comer said.
Oversight Democrats publicized a 2003 birthday letter Trump allegedly wrote to Epstein. The letter was dated three years before allegations of Epstein’s sexual abuse became public, and the White House denied its authenticity.
House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson said the committee has continued its Epstein investigation amid the government shutdown that began on October 1 after Congress failed to pass funding legislation for fiscal year 2026. The shutdown was in its 21st day on Tuesday.
Every House Democrat and four Republicans have signed a discharge petition to force a vote on a resolution requiring the U.S. Department of Justice to publicly release all unclassified Epstein records.
Representative-elect Adelita Grijalva, an Arizona Democrat who won a September 23 special election to succeed her late father in Congress, would be the 218th signature on the petition, triggering action on the resolution. But Johnson has refused to swear her in while the House is out of session.
The chamber passed a stopgap bill to fund the government on September 19, which so far does not have enough support to pass in the Senate. The House has not voted since that date.
(Reporting by Nolan D. McCaskill and Katharine Jackson in Washington; Editing by Richard Cowan and Matthew Lewis)
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