Hillary Clinton took to X on Thursday to challenge House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer to a public hearing — days after she and former President Bill Clinton had already agreed to the terms of their depositions before the committee investigating convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The post came after months of delay, defiance, and a bipartisan contempt vote. It read like a campaign launch, not a concession.

"For six months, we engaged Republicans on the Oversight Committee in good faith. We told them what we know, under oath. They ignored all of it. They moved the goalposts and turned accountability into an exercise in distraction."

That framing collapses under the weight of the timeline. The Clintons didn't engage in good faith for six months. They spent six months dodging subpoenas.

A Trail of No-Shows

Breitbart reported that on July 23, 2025, Republicans and Democrats on the Federal Law Enforcement Subcommittee unanimously approved a motion to issue subpoenas to ten individuals — the Clintons among them. Chairman Comer issued the subpoenas on August 5, 2025. What followed was not cooperation. It was choreographed resistance.

Hillary Clinton's deposition was initially scheduled for October 9, 2025. It was moved to December 18, 2025. She declined, citing the need to attend a funeral. A follow-on subpoena set the date for January 14, 2026. She failed to appear.

Bill Clinton's deposition was initially requested for October 14, 2025, then moved to December 17, 2025. He was a no-show.

The Clintons declined multiple offers to schedule live testimony and instead offered sworn written statements. Comer rejected that. He rejected a request for a closed-door deposition. He rejected what he called a "ridiculous offer" for an unofficial interview.

At every turn, the Clintons sought arrangements that would shield them from the kind of direct, on-the-record questioning that every other witness in this investigation has faced.

Former Attorney General Bill Barr sat for a deposition under the same terms. So did former Secretary Alex Acosta. Both Republicans. Neither demanded special accommodations.

Contempt, Then a Sudden Change of Heart

On January 21, 2026, the Oversight Committee voted on a bipartisan basis to advance resolutions recommending that the House find both Clintons in contempt of Congress. If passed by the full House and referred to the DOJ, a conviction could have meant a $100,000 fine and up to a year behind bars.

That changed the calculus quickly.

On the evening of Monday, February 2, the Clintons' lawyers — Jonathan Skladany and Ashley Callen — sent an email saying their clients would agree to the Republicans' terms. Republicans paused proceedings to advance the contempt resolutions. Two days later, Comer announced deposition dates: Hillary Clinton on February 26, Bill Clinton on February 27.

And then the spin started.

The Clintons' lawyers claimed Comer had added "new stipulations" — specifically, that the depositions would be recorded on video. Clinton seized on this, posting on X:

"So let's stop the games. If you want this fight, @RepJamesComer, let's have it — in public."

And:

"You love to talk about transparency. There's nothing more transparent than a public hearing, cameras on."

The committee fired back immediately, noting that the video recording requirement was part of the standard House deposition guidance sent alongside the subpoenas:

"Then they pretended that we were moving the goalpost when they received, along with the subpoenas, the House deposition guidance that explicitly mentions video recordings."

The Playbook Is Familiar

What Clinton is doing is not complicated. She wants a public hearing — cameras, microphones, the full theatrical apparatus of a congressional spectacle — because that environment rewards performance, not precision. A deposition rewards neither. It is methodical. It is sequential. It does not allow five-minute soliloquies about "transparency" or "accountability." It asks questions and demands answers.

Comer made this clear in a Wednesday interview on Newsmax:

"The deposition will be made public, it's going to be audio, video and the transcripts will be released."

He added:

"Depositions are always the preferred means of getting information from a witness."

And he left the door open:

"After the depositions, if the Clintons want more, they're more than welcome to come to the House Oversight Committee after they're deposed. If they want to testify in a public hearing in front of the Oversight Committee, they are more than welcome to do that."

So the Clintons can have their public hearing — after they answer questions under oath, on the record, without a teleprompter and a social media team crafting the narrative in real time. That's the part they're trying to skip.

The "Good Faith" Myth

Clinton's claim of six months of good-faith engagement deserves scrutiny against the actual record:

• Subpoenas issued: August 5, 2025
• First scheduled depositions: October 2025 — both Clintons failed to appear on the rescheduled dates
• Counter-offer of sworn written statements — rejected
• Counter-offer of closed-door deposition — rejected
• Counter-offer of unofficial interview — rejected
• January 2026: Both Clintons defied bipartisan subpoenas
• January 21, 2026: Bipartisan contempt vote
• February 2, 2026: Sudden agreement — only after contempt loomed

That is not good faith. That is a legal strategy designed to exhaust the clock, and when the clock ran out, a PR strategy designed to reframe surrender as strength.

The Committee's Response

The Oversight Committee's reply on X was pointed. It included images of emails between the committee and the Clintons' legal team — correspondence that revealed the Clintons had agreed to a transcribed deposition before the video dispute materialized. The committee wrote:

"The Clintons are going to Clinton and try to spin the facts. On Tuesday, at the eleventh hour, their lawyers, Jonathan Skladany and Ashley Callen, said their clients accepted the terms of the depositions."

And:

"These terms are no different than any other deposition we have held on this case — even with Republicans like former AG Bill Barr and Secretary Alex Acosta."

The committee closed with a line that landed:

"We are not going to debate the meaning of the word 'is.' We are going to get answers for the American people. The full truth. The buck stops here."

That reference to the meaning of "is" — a callback only one American family could fully appreciate — tells you exactly how the committee views the gamesmanship at play.

What Comes Next

Hillary Clinton's deposition is now set for February 26. Bill Clinton's is February 27. The location remains to be determined, as the Clintons are pushing for the depositions to take place in New York City. Their lawyer, Skladany, wrote that an open hearing "will best suit our concerns about fairness."

Fairness. From a family that ignored subpoenas, skipped depositions, and only agreed to testify when criminal referral became a real possibility.

The Epstein investigation has already compelled testimony from figures on both sides of the aisle. Barr showed up. Acosta showed up. The Clintons — who treated congressional authority as optional until it wasn't — now want to dictate the format.

Comer stated that depositions would proceed as required by subpoena. The American people will see the audio, the video, and the transcripts. Every answer — and every refusal to answer — will be on the record.

Six months of delay. A bipartisan contempt vote. And now, a social media post dressed up as a demand for transparency from two people who did everything in their power to avoid it. The record speaks for itself.