Comer said his committee, which has been investigating allegations of sex trafficking related to the deceased financier, has “always planned” on such hearings and will move forward once its depositions are completed.
“I’ve always planned on having hearings with the victims,” Comer said on Fox News’s “America’s Reports.” “There are some victims who are willing to come in. Most victims aren’t, and I completely understand that.”
“I agree with the first lady and appreciate what she said,” he added. “We will have hearings.”
The announcement follows Trump denying that she has any ties to Epstein or that Epstein introduced her to her husband, President Donald Trump. She also called on Congress to provide victims with the opportunity to testify under oath in her Thursday remarks.
“Each and every woman should have her day to tell her story in public, if she wishes, and then her testimony should be permanently entered into the congressional record,” Melania Trump said. “Then, and only then, will we have the truth.”
Trump explained that she and her husband ran in the same New York and Palm Beach social circles as Epstein, but she maintained she was not involved in the late financier’s crimes and noted that her name has not appeared in court documents, victim statements, or FBI interviews surrounding Epstein. It is not clear what prompted Trump to deliver these remarks.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has already conducted closed-door depositions with several figures connected to Epstein as lawmakers from both parties push for greater transparency around his network and any institutional failures that allowed his alleged abuses to continue.
Comer said committee attorneys have been in regular contact with lawyers representing the victims as part of the investigation.
Retail mogul Les Wexner, as well as former President Bill Clinton and his wife, Hillary Clinton, have sat for depositions after their names appeared in the files released by the Department of Justice relating to Epstein.
MELANIA TRUMP HITS OUT FOR FIRST TIME AT ‘LIES’ LINKING HER TO JEFFREY EPSTEIN
Another group of high-profile figures is slated to sit for transcribed interviews in June, including Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.
Ted Waitt, a former associate of Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, Tova Noel, a prison guard who worked around Epstein, and former Epstein aide Lesley Groff have been asked to sit for interviews as well.
