Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are scheduled to give sworn testimony early next week to the U.S. House Oversight Committee as part of a GOP-led investigation into the late financier Jeffrey Epstein. Hillary Clinton appears on Feb. 26, and Bill Clinton is scheduled to appear on Feb. 27, with both depositions taking place in the Clintons' hometown of Chappaqua, New York.

The appearance marks the first time a former U.S. president is compelled to testify under subpoena in such an inquiry. That alone makes the moment historic. That it involves the Clintons and Epstein makes it something else entirely.

A Months-Long Standoff Comes to an End

Neither Clinton came to the table willingly. The couple previously resisted sitting for testimony earlier this month, prompting scheduled subpoenas and the threat of criminal contempt of Congress proceedings. Only after the legal walls closed in did both agree to appear for private depositions.

According to Just the News, that resistance is worth noting. These are two of the most lawyered-up people in American public life. They have attorneys who understand precisely what congressional subpoena power looks like and what contempt charges carry. The fact that it took the full weight of congressional enforcement to get them into chairs tells you everything about how eagerly they wanted to answer questions about Jeffrey Epstein under oath.

Oversight Committee Chair Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., pushed for in-person, recorded depositions rather than written testimony or declarations. Written answers, of course, are drafted by lawyers, scrubbed of anything useful, and delivered weeks later with all the spontaneity of a press release. Comer wanted depositions. He got them.

The Public Testimony Gambit

Hillary Clinton, for her part, suggested the couple should testify publicly as part of the probe instead of closed-door depositions. Comer did not approve the request.

On its face, a call for public testimony sounds like transparency. Look closer, and it looks like something else: a stage. Public hearings give witnesses an audience to play to, cameras to perform for, and the chance to turn a deposition into a political counter-offensive. Anyone who watched Hillary Clinton's Benghazi testimony in 2015 knows the playbook. Closed-door depositions strip away the theater. There are no viral moments to clip, no applause lines to rehearse. There is only a witness, a transcript, and the questions.

Comer made the right call.

Why This Matters Beyond the Clintons

The broader question hanging over this investigation is one the American public has been asking for years: what exactly was Jeffrey Epstein's operation, who participated in it, and why has accountability been so elusive? Epstein died in a federal jail cell. Ghislaine Maxwell sits in prison. But the network of powerful figures who moved through Epstein's world has never been fully mapped in a public, adversarial forum with subpoena power behind it.

The House Oversight Committee's investigation represents one of the few mechanisms with the authority to compel answers from people who would rather not give them. The Clintons are not the only figures whose names have orbited the Epstein story for years, but they are among the most prominent. Putting a former president and a former secretary of state under oath on the subject sends a signal that the investigation is serious about going wherever the facts lead, regardless of political stature.

That signal matters. For too long, the Epstein case has carried the stench of a story that powerful people on both sides of the aisle would prefer to quietly forget. Victims of Epstein's crimes deserve better than institutional amnesia. They deserve a government willing to ask uncomfortable questions of uncomfortable people.

What Comes Next

The depositions are closed-door, meaning the public will not see the testimony in real time. But transcripts from congressional depositions can be released, and the political pressure to do so will be enormous. What the Clintons say under oath in Chappaqua next week will eventually reach the public one way or another.

The months-long standoff is over. The subpoenas worked. Now comes the part that matters: the questions, the answers, and the sworn record that follows both Clintons out of that room.