By Annie Grayer, CNN

(CNN) — Attorneys representing Bill and Hillary Clinton made a last-ditch offer to avoid a House contempt of Congress vote in the congressional Jeffrey Epstein probe, but were rejected by Oversight Chair James Comer.

“It has been nearly six months since your clients first received the Committee’s subpoena, more than three months since the original date of their depositions, and nearly three weeks since they failed to appear for their depositions commensurate with the Committee’s lawful subpoenas,” Comer wrote. “Your clients’ desire for special treatment is both frustrating and an affront to the American people’s desire for transparency.”

The correspondence, obtained by CNN, reveals that the Clintons’ team has been in search of an off-ramp for days. Attorneys for the former president and former secretary of state have been in discussion with the Republican-led committee multiple times since lawmakers from both parties voted in January to hold the Clintons in contempt for refusing to appear for in-person depositions as part of the panel’s investigation into Epstein.

By rejecting the Clintons’ most recent offer, Comer has all but ensured that the House will hold a final vote this week on the contempt resolutions.

According to the letter dated January 31, the Clintons’ lawyers laid out the terms under which the former president would sit for a voluntary, transcribed interview. He would sit for four hours in New York City for an interview limited to the scope of the Epstein probe, they said. Lawmakers from both parties and their staff could ask questions, and the lawyers said both the Clintons and the committee could have their own transcriber present, according to the letter.

Even though the lawyers continued to push for the panel to drop its subpoena for Hillary Clinton’s testimony, they said she could submit a second sworn declaration or appear for an in-person interview in a similar format to her husband.

In exchange, Clinton attorneys Ashley Callen and David E. Kendall asked Comer to withdraw the subpoenas and contempt resolutions against them.

Bill Clinton has repeatedly denied wrongdoing related the Epstein, the late convicted sex offender.

Comer rejected the offer from the Clintons’ attorneys as “unreasonable” and said he could not accept such terms.

He could not agree, he said, to changing the interview from a sworn deposition to a voluntary interview, and rejected the way in which the attorneys sought to limit the interview’s scope. Comer noted if the attorneys had offered a voluntary interview when the former president first received his subpoena for testimony in August, the situation could have played out differently.

“But given that he has already failed to appear for a deposition and has refused for several months to provide the Committee with in-person testimony, the Committee cannot simply have faith that President Clinton will not refuse to answer questions at a transcribed interview, resulting in the Committee being right back where it is today,” the Kentucky Republican wrote.

Clinton, he added, would have incentive to attempt to “run out the clock” if the committee agreed to a firm, four-hour time limit for an interview. And the Republican chairman questioned why the Clintons wanted their own transcriber, if an official court reporter provided by the panel would be present.

In his letter, Comer referenced how the process played out for former President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, who agreed to sit for an in-person deposition, not a voluntary transcribed interview, following a committee vote to hold him in contempt.

Ultimately, Comer also rejected the proposals laid out for Hillary Clinton.

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