Testimony from Bill and Hillary Clinton as part of the congressional probe into the Jeffrey Epstein case opens the door for the current president and first lady to talk about their own ties to the late sex offender.
Hillary Clinton told lawmakers Thursday that she did not recall ever meeting the well-connected financier who died in prison while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, and Bill Clinton is expected to testify about his relationship with Epstein – a former friend of President Donald Trump and an associate of Melania Trump.
"Precedent in Congress is only as strong as whoever holds the majority," said CNN's Elie Honig, "but we've heard Democratic members of this Oversight Committee say if [they] take over in November, which certainly could happen, [they] then plan to subpoena Donald Trump. Now, the response from the Republican side has been, well but the sitting president is different than a former president, and there's something to that. There are many legal settings where the courts give the sitting president more privileges, more exemptions, more immunities than a former president. So we'll see if the Democrats take over. But it certainly gives them a political mechanism to say, well, hey you subpoenaed the Democratic former president, we want to subpoena the Republican former president."
However, the legal analyst said the first lady has no specific shield under the law that would prevent her from getting called to testify.
"But Melania is an interesting one, too, right, because the justification, part of the justification for Hillary Clinton is neither of them are president but, well, she knows something about her husband's activities," Honig said. "That same rationale would certainly apply in reverse to Melania. So, again, if the Dems take over that could be a subpoena they're considering."
The former president appears in photo released by the Department of Justice swimming with Ghislaine Maxwell and reclining in a hot tub next to a person whose face is blacked out, and Honig explained what to expect in his testimony Friday.
"Bill Clinton is anotoriously difficult subject tobe questioned," Honig said. "The man is alawyer, he was president. He'sbeen questioned by prosecutorsand lawyers and the mediacountless times when theyprepared for the 1998 grand jurytestimony in front of Ken Starrsounds like similar to what thereporting is about, how they'veprepared for this testimonythey've spent hours upon hours,days upon days getting ready forthis like it was a boxing matchor a chess match, and the thingthey did in '98 – and I would watchfor this today – is they had Bill Clinton prepared with about adozen what they called setpieces, meaning pre-rehearsedspeeches or talking points thathe would use, and there's a couple reasons for that."
"One,they want to keep him onmessage, and two, they want torun out the clock," he added. "Bill Clintonis really good at taking overthese settings and filibusteringand running down the timeallotted."