Former FBI Director James Comey won’t testify as a part of the Republican investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.
Comey was scheduled to be deposed Tuesday by the Home Oversight and Authorities Reform Committee as a part of the panel’s ongoing probe into Epstein, the late financier and youngster intercourse offender. Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) had subpoenaed Comey final month for that testimony.
However in a letter to Comer dated Oct. 1, Comey mentioned he merely has no “knowledge” or “information relevant to the Committee’s investigation.”
“I offer this letter in lieu of a deposition that would unproductively consume the Committee’s scarce time and resources,” Comey wrote.
Comey had served as deputy lawyer basic from 2003 to 2005, after which as FBI director for nearly 4 years starting in September of 2013. Each intervals are being scrutinized by the Oversight panel, which is in search of data on Epstein from 1990 till his demise in jail in 2019.
“At no time during my service at the Department of Justice or the FBI do I recall any information or conversations that related to Jeffrey Epstein or Ghislaine Maxwell,” Comey wrote. Maxwell, Epstein’s former girlfriend and long-time affiliate, is at present serving 20 years in jail for crimes associated to the intercourse trafficking of minors.
The letter is topic to a provision of federal regulation that makes it against the law — punishable by jail time — to present false statements to brokers of the federal government. With that in thoughts, Comer accepted Comey’s assertion and withdrew the subpoena demanding his testimony.
Comey’s message was just like these delivered by former Attorneys Normal Eric Holder and Merrick Garland, who have been additionally subpoenaed to look earlier than the Oversight panel. Comer withdrew these subpoenas as properly in current days.
Two different high-profile figures — former President Invoice Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — have additionally been subpoenaed to look privately earlier than the Oversight Committee this month. It’s unclear if these depositions will proceed as scheduled. A spokesperson for Comer declined to remark.
The maneuvers come amid an escalation between competing strategic approaches to the Epstein investigation.
High Republican leaders, together with President Trump and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), need to proceed the Oversight probe, arguing that it represents the best technique to get data in a well timed method. As a part of that effort, Comer has already launched hundreds of paperwork obtained beneath subpoena from the Justice Division and Epstein’s property.
Critics of that method argue that Trump’s Justice Division is cherry-picking the paperwork it delivers to Comer to guard rich Republican donors and Trump associates. These lawmakers are pushing laws to require the administration to publicize all the federal government’s recordsdata on Epstein and Maxwell — an effort that’s been endorsed by various Epstein’s victims.
Johnson has refused to deliver that laws to the ground. However the lead sponsors of the invoice are on the cusp of forcing that vote via a discharge petition. That procedural gambit has 217 signatures — one shy of the 218 it must power the vote — and Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva (D-Ariz.) has mentioned she’ll signal the petition as quickly as she’s sworn into her seat.
Amid the federal government shutdown, nonetheless, Johnson has canceled all Home votes since Grijalva was elected, and he’s refused to swear her in through the chamber’s professional forma periods. That’s led to accusations that the Speaker is stalling to guard Trump by delaying the success of the discharge petition.
