There are two ways to read this…
1. Some officials have refused to testify before Congress before and whether or not this results in imprisonment has to do with whether the refusee is a Republican or a Democrat. Still even the Democrats had better legal reasoning than the hodge-podge of pulpit-pounding and arm-waving in the Clinton rejection letter that read like it had been written by Hillary Clinton in a foul mood and no one to tell her it was a bad idea. (“You can’t tell me how to lawyer, I was lawyering when you were in diapers.”)
Eventually their high-priced legal talent prevailed on Hillary to back down.
2. The Epstein files are out and the Clinton takeaway is that they have nothing to worry about.
My money is on a mix of 1 and 2, but especially 2.
So here we go.
Bill and Hillary Clinton have agreed to testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee as part of the panel’s investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
It’s a remarkable reversal for the former president and secretary of state, who had defied committee-issued subpoenas and risked imprisonment by the Trump Justice Department as the House prepared to vote Wednesday to hold them in contempt of Congress.
“The Clintons’ counsel has said they agree to terms, but those terms lack clarity yet again and they have provided no dates for their depositions,” House Oversight Chair James Comer said in a statement Monday. “The only reason they have said they agree to terms is because the House has moved forward with contempt. I will clarify the terms they are agreeing to and then discuss next steps with my committee members.”
Comer’s office received an email from the Clintons’ legal team announcing the couple’s decision while he was in the middle of testifying before the House Rules Committee to tee up consideration of the contempt resolutions in the coming days, according to a GOP committee aide.
Agreeing to agree and then negotiating terms is how properly trained lawyers, which Hillary hasn’t been in a while, handle something like this. Mostly though the end game is the Clintons showing up, delivering their prepared speeches and Hillary closing with “Well what difference does it make anyway?”
