The House Oversight Committee’s push to depose witnesses in its probe of Jeffrey Epstein is running into a problem that has nothing to do with evidence and everything to do with attendance. Travel concessions and missing lawmakers are now clouding what should be a serious accountability effort.

Several depositions have featured limited lawmaker participation, with committee counsel often stepping in for absent members. The most recent sessions — involving Les Wexner, Bill Clinton, and Hillary Clinton — required members to travel outside Washington, D.C. at taxpayer expense, all to accommodate witness schedules.

The House Oversight Committee told the Daily Caller that agreeing to travel was necessary to move things along. According to the committee, members were given weeks of notice for the Clinton depositions in New York, and nearly two dozen attended in Chappaqua. They also pointed out that the Clintons delayed their depositions for seven months, meaning the committee had to work around their calendars. Efficient and effective, they say — even if it meant hopping on a plane.

Committee rules allow depositions to be conducted by counsel and permit hearings anywhere in the U.S., so technically everything is above board. Still, optics matter, and they weren’t great when no Republicans showed up for Wexner’s deposition in Ohio, while several Democrats made the trip.

Chairman James Comer said he couldn’t attend that session due to previously scheduled dental surgery. Add in a House recess from Feb. 17 to Feb. 20, and some members chose district time over deposition time.

Democratic Ranking Member Robert Garcia declined to weigh in and referred questions back to Comer.

So here we are: serious questions, serious witnesses, and a process slowed by scheduling conflicts and empty chairs. Still, the fact that these depositions are happening at all is progress. Accountability may be traveling light these days, but it’s still moving forward — and that’s a step in the right direction.