House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer said Friday that Congress will hold hearings featuring victims of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a direct response to First Lady Melania Trump's public call, one day earlier, for survivors to testify under oath and have their accounts permanently entered into the congressional record.
Comer made the announcement on Fox News's "America's Reports," telling viewers his committee had long intended to bring victims before Congress and would move forward once its current round of depositions wraps up. The chairman framed the hearings as part of a bipartisan push for transparency into Epstein's network and the institutional failures that allowed his alleged sex trafficking operation to persist.
The commitment lands at a moment when the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is already deep into closed-door depositions with high-profile figures whose names surfaced in Department of Justice files related to Epstein. Retail mogul Les Wexner, former President Bill Clinton, and Hillary Clinton have already sat for depositions. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates are slated for transcribed interviews in June. And the committee has asked former Epstein associate Ted Waitt, prison guard Tova Noel, and former Epstein aide Lesley Groff to sit for interviews as well.
That is a long roster. And the fact that it spans both parties, a Democratic former president, a sitting Republican commerce secretary, billionaire tech founders, makes the Epstein investigation one of the rare Washington proceedings where neither side can claim clean hands.
The first lady's Thursday statement set the table for Comer's announcement. Melania Trump, who has not shied from confronting false claims about her in the past, called on Congress to give every woman connected to the Epstein case the chance to speak publicly if she chooses.
"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. Then, and only then, will we have the truth."
The first lady also addressed her own proximity to the case head-on. She acknowledged that she and President Trump moved in the same New York and Palm Beach social circles as Epstein, a fact critics have tried to weaponize for years. But she denied any involvement in Epstein's crimes and stated that her name has not appeared in court documents, victim statements, or FBI interviews surrounding the financier. She also denied that Epstein introduced her to her husband, a claim that Paolo Zampolli has said under oath he can refute, asserting he was the one who introduced the couple.
What prompted the first lady's remarks remains unclear. But their effect was immediate.
Comer wasted no time aligning himself with the first lady's position. As Fox News reported, the Kentucky Republican said his committee's attorneys have maintained regular contact with lawyers representing the victims throughout the investigation.
"I've always planned on having hearings with the victims. There are some victims who are willing to come in. Most victims aren't, and I completely understand that."
He then added, plainly: "I agree with the first lady and appreciate what she said. We will have hearings."
The Washington Examiner confirmed that Comer's committee had already planned the hearings and would proceed once the current deposition schedule is complete, noting the broader investigation into Epstein-related sex trafficking allegations continues to expand.
That expansion is worth tracking. The committee's work so far has been conducted behind closed doors. Depositions are not public events. Transcribed interviews, the format scheduled for Lutnick and Gates in June, carry legal weight but happen outside the camera's glare. Public hearings would change the dynamic entirely, putting victims' testimony on the record and forcing the press and the public to reckon with what they say.
The Epstein case has always been politically inconvenient for Washington's establishment. The convicted sex offender cultivated ties across party lines, across industries, and across continents. His accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, connected him to a web of powerful figures whose names now populate DOJ files and committee witness lists.
Bill Clinton's deposition alone should have been front-page news for weeks. In a Washington where partisan posturing often overshadows substance, the fact that a former Democratic president sat for questioning in an Epstein-related congressional probe received remarkably restrained coverage. Hillary Clinton sat as well. So did Les Wexner, the L Brands founder whose financial relationship with Epstein has drawn scrutiny for years.
The June interview schedule adds more weight. Howard Lutnick, now serving as Commerce Secretary, and Bill Gates, whose post-divorce meetings with Epstein drew public attention, are both expected to sit for transcribed interviews. The committee has also reached out to Tova Noel, a prison guard who worked around Epstein, and Lesley Groff, a former Epstein aide, figures closer to the day-to-day operation of whatever Epstein was running.
As the New York Post reported, Melania Trump's public statement is actively shaping the political debate on Capitol Hill over how Congress should handle the next phase of the investigation. Reactions from both parties and from survivors suggest her call for transparency has given the effort new momentum.
It is easy, in the swirl of famous names and political intrigue, to lose sight of the people at the center of this case. Jeffrey Epstein's victims, the young women who were trafficked, manipulated, and abused, are the reason this investigation exists. They are not props for a political spectacle. They are the people who paid the price for whatever institutional failures allowed Epstein's operation to continue unchecked.
Comer acknowledged that reality. Most victims, he said, are not willing to come forward publicly. That reluctance is understandable. Testifying before Congress about sexual abuse, under oath, on camera, with the world watching, demands a kind of courage most people will never be asked to summon.
But some victims are willing. And the first lady's call, that every woman should have the chance to tell her story publicly if she chooses, and that her testimony should become part of the permanent congressional record, is exactly the right standard. Melania Trump has consistently demonstrated a willingness to step into contentious public moments on her own terms, and this is no exception.
The question now is whether Congress will follow through with the seriousness the victims deserve. Closed-door depositions are a start. Transcribed interviews with billionaires and cabinet secretaries are a necessary step. But public hearings, where victims speak for the record and the country listens, are where accountability either happens or doesn't.
Comer has not set a specific date for the hearings. He has not named which victims are willing to testify. He has not said which depositions still need to be completed before the committee moves to public proceedings. Those details matter, because promises of future hearings have a way of quietly dissolving in Washington when the political cost of holding them becomes clear.
The Epstein case has been marked, from the beginning, by institutional evasion. A sweetheart plea deal in Florida. A mysterious death in a federal jail cell. Years of delay before DOJ files saw the light of day. The powerful figures in Epstein's orbit have had every advantage that wealth and influence can buy. The victims have had almost none.
Lawmakers from both parties say they want transparency. The first lady has called for it publicly. The chairman of the Oversight Committee has pledged it on national television. The depositions are underway. The interview requests have gone out.
Now the country gets to watch whether Washington means it, or whether the Epstein case remains the one scandal where everyone agrees something terrible happened, and nobody with power ever has to answer for it in the open.