Former US president Bill Clinton and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton have finalised an agreement with House Republicans to testify in an investigation into Jeffrey Epstein this month, bowing to the threat of a contempt of Congress vote against them.
Mrs Clinton will give evidence before the House Oversight Committee on February 26 and Mr Clinton will appear on February 27.
It will mark the first time that politicians have compelled a former president to testify.
The arrangement comes after months of negotiating between the two sides as Republicans sought to make the Clintons a focal point in a House committee’s investigation into Epstein, a convicted sex offender who killed himself in a New York jail cell in 2019.
The Clintons resisted the subpoenas, but House Republicans — with support from a few Democrats — had advanced criminal contempt of Congress charges to a potential vote this week.
It threatened the Clintons with the potential for substantial fines and even prison time if they had been convicted.
Even as the Clintons bowed to that pressure, the negotiating between Republican politicians and lawyers for the Clintons was marked by distrust as they wrangled over the details of the deposition.
The belligerence is likely to only grow as Republicans relish the opportunity to grill longtime political foes under oath.
Mr Clinton, like a number of other high-powered men, had a well-documented relationship with Epstein in the late 1990s and early 2000s. He has not been accused of wrongdoing in his interactions with the late financier.