Former US President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary Clinton, the former Secretary of State, have agreed to testify in the congressional investigation into late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

It comes days before a vote on whether to hold the couple in criminal contempt for refusing to appear before the House Oversight Committee after a months-long standoff.

Bill Clinton was acquainted with Epstein, who died in prison in 2019, but has denied knowledge of his sex offending and says he cut off contact two decades ago.

It's unclear when the depositions will take place, but it will be the first time a former US president has testified to a congressional panel since Gerald Ford did so in 1983.

The Clintons had long resisted a demand to appear before the committee, saying they had already given sworn statements representing the "limited information" they had on Epstein.

They had dismissed the legal summonses issued by the committee as "nothing more than a ploy to attempt to embarrass political rivals, as President Trump has directed".

The House Oversight Committee, led by Republicans, then approved the measure to hold the Clintons in contempt late last month, with the support of several Democrats.

On Saturday, lawyers for the couple made an offer for them to provide limited testimony that would have centred on a four-hour interview by Bill Clinton. But House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer expressed concerns that the former president would stonewall questions and run down the clock.

On Monday evening, Bill Clinton's deputy chief of staff Angel Ureña posted on X confirming the couple would appear before the panel.

"They negotiated in good faith," Ureña wrote in a tweet directed at the House Oversight Committee. "You did not.

"They told you under oath what they know, but you don't care. But the former President and former Secretary of State will be there. They look forward to setting a precedent that applies to everyone."

Afterwards, it was announced that lawmakers' consideration of the contempt resolutions against the Clintons would be postponed. House Rules Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx said the Oversight Committee needed more time "to clarify with the Clintons what they are actually agreeing to".

For his part, Comer said: "I will clarify the terms they are agreeing to and then discuss next steps with my committee members."

Neither Clinton has been accused of wrongdoing by survivors of Epstein's abuse, and they have denied knowledge of his sex offending.

Hillary Clinton, former US senator and secretary of state, and the Democratic presidential nominee in 2016, has said she never met or spoke to Epstein.

Epstein's private jet logs show that Clinton took four international flights in 2002 and 2003.

Shortly after Epstein was arrested on sex trafficking charges in July 2019, Clinton's spokesperson said the former president took trips on the plane including "stops in connection with the work of the Clinton Foundation".

The former president also appears at the late financier's estate in photos that were among a batch of records released by the justice department to comply with a law passed by Congress mandating the disclosure of all investigative material relating to the late convicted paedophile.

One picture shows the former president swimming in a pool, and another shows him lying on his back with his hands behind his head in what appears to be a hot tub.

Ureña, Clinton's spokesman, said at the time the photos were released in December that they were decades old and Clinton had stopped associating with Epstein before his crimes came to light.

Last month, the Clintons wrote a letter to James Comer, the House Oversight Committee chairman, criticising his handling of the Epstein investigation.

"The decisions you have made, and the priorities you have set as chairman regarding the Epstein investigation, have prevented progress in discovering the facts about the government's role," the letter said.

They added: "There is no plausible explanation for what you are doing other than partisan politics."

Comer previously noted the subpoenas to the Clintons were approved in a bipartisan vote and said "no-one is above the law".

"We communicated with President Clinton's legal team for months now, giving them opportunity after opportunity to come in, to give us a day, and they continue to delay, delay, delay," said the Kentucky Republican. (BBC)

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