Clintons defy House GOP on Epstein subpoenas

What happened

Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Tuesday they have no intention to testify in the House Oversight Committee’s investigation of Jeffrey Epstein. In a letter to committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.), the Clintons said they had already given the panel what “little information we have” on Epstein’s “horrific” crimes, and subpoenas for them to appear for closed-door depositions were “legally invalid” and clearly driven by “partisan politics.” Comer said he would move to hold both Clintons in contempt of Congress.

Who said what

Comer’s “relentless efforts” to force the Clintons to testify “reflect his overall approach to his panel’s Epstein inquiry,” The New York Times said. He has sought to “deflect focus” from President Donald Trump’s own “ties to the convicted sex offender” and his administration’s mishandling of the Epstein case, and to “shift the spotlight onto prominent Democrats.” Bill Clinton, like Trump, “had a well-documented friendship” with Epstein “throughout the 1990s and early 2000s,” The Associated Press, but neither president has been accused of wrongdoing in connection with Epstein’s crimes.

The Clintons’ lawyers sent Comer a letter Monday night laying out their case for why the subpoenas are “invalid and legally unenforceable,” citing the same decades of legal precedent Trump used in 2022 to thwart a Democratic subpoena to testify about the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. Comer said his committee would not try to compel testimony from Trump.

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What next?

If Comer’s committee declares the Clintons in contempt next week, “the full House would next vote on whether to refer the matter to the Justice Department for possible prosecution,” The Washington Post said. The “seldom-used congressional power” can result in anything from a “symbolic” rebuke to a year in jail, Politico said, but “there’s reason to believe” the Clintons may face “dramatic consequences,” given the Trump DOJ’s willingness to target his “perceived enemies.”