Home Republicans are set to take the following steps on Wednesday to carry former President Invoice Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in contempt of Congress for failing to adjust to committee subpoenas associated to the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.
On Wednesday, Oversight Chairman James Comer is ready to carry a markup of two resolutions discovering the Clintons in contempt of Congress after they defied a subpoena for a deposition with the committee final week.
“The Clintons should not above the regulation, and the Home Oversight Committee will transfer to carry them in contempt of Congress,” Comer, a Republican, stated in a press release final week. “If Democrats refuse to carry the Clintons accountable, they’ll expose themselves as hypocrites.”
Home Oversight and Authorities Reform Committee Chairman James Comer, joined by Rep. Scott Perry, speaks to reporters after former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton failed to look for a closed-door deposition within the Rayburn Home Workplace Constructing on Capitol Hill on Jan. 14, 2026, in Washington, D.C.
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Pictures
The Clintons have insisted that the subpoena is with out authorized advantage, combating the subpoena for months.
Final summer time, Republicans and Democrats on Oversight’s Federal Legislation Enforcement Subcommittee authorised a movement to problem subpoenas to 10 people, together with Invoice and Hillary Clinton, for testimony associated to their investigation into Epstein and his affiliate, Ghislaine Maxwell.
Former President Invoice Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrive previous to the inauguration of Donald Trump on the Capitol on Jan. 20, 2025, in Washington, D.C.
Melina Mara/Pool by way of Getty Pictures, FILE
Republicans have pointed on the former president’s travels on Epstein’s non-public plane within the early 2000s and the Clinton “household’s previous relationship” with Epstein and Maxwell.
The contempt decision is anticipated to advance out of the committee Wednesday afternoon — teeing up a full vote on the Home flooring days later. The timing of flooring consideration will not grow to be clear till after the committee markup.
If Democrats oppose the ground vote, Speaker Mike Johnson can afford to lose simply two Republican votes earlier than a 3rd GOP defector may upset passage.
The decision, if handed, would direct the speaker of the Home to refer the case to the U.S. Lawyer for the District of Columbia — below the Division of Justice — for doable prison prosecution. A easy majority is required to clear a contempt decision, although it doesn’t require passage within the Senate.
Apart from defying the subpoena, neither Invoice Clinton nor Hillary Clinton has been accused of wrongdoing and denies having any data of Epstein’s crimes. No Epstein survivor or affiliate has ever made a public allegation of wrongdoing or inappropriate habits by the previous president or his spouse in connection along with his prior relationship with Epstein.
Final month, in response to the Epstein Information Transparency Act, the Justice Division released several photographs of former President Clinton apparently taken throughout his worldwide travels with Epstein and Maxwell between 2002 and 2003.
Democrats on the Home Oversight Committee have launched extra photographs from the property of Jeffrey Epstein, together with ones of Donald Trump and Invoice Clinton.
Home Oversight Committee Democrats
Following that disclosure, a spokesperson for the two-term Democratic president argued that the Trump administration launched these photographs to protect the Trump White Home “from what comes subsequent, or from what they’re going to attempt to conceal endlessly.”
For months, David Kendall, the Clintons’ lawyer, has constantly argued that the Clintons haven’t any data related to the committee’s investigation and shouldn’t be required to look for in-person testimony.
Comer wrote in a letter to Kendall in October that the committee is “skeptical” that the Clintons have solely restricted data, and argued it was as much as the committee, not the Clintons, to make determinations of the worth of their testimony.
“[T]he Committee believes that it ought to be supplied in a deposition setting, the place the Committee can finest assess its breadth and worth,” Comer wrote.
Comer stated in a press release on Tuesday that Invoice Clinton’s legal professionals made a suggestion for Comer, Rating Member Robert Garcia and two members of every of their staffs to have a dialog with solely former President Invoice Clinton in New York. A Comer spokesperson stated he “rejected the Clintons’ ridiculous provide.”
“The Home Oversight Committee rejects the Clintons’ unreasonable calls for and can transfer ahead with contempt resolutions on Wednesday as a consequence of their continued defiance of lawful subpoenas,” Comer wrote within the assertion.
In response to Comer’s assertion, Clinton spokesperson Angel Ureña informed ABC Information that the Clintons “by no means stated no to a transcript.”
“Interviews are on the file and below oath. Whether or not it was written or typed isn’t why that is occurring. If that have been the final or solely problem, we’d be in a unique place,” Ureña stated in a press release.
“You retain misdirecting to guard you-know-who and God is aware of what,” she stated, referring to Comer.
Final week, the ex-president’s workplace publicly launched two written declarations — dated Jan. 13 from every of the Clintons — which it stated have been supplied to the Oversight Committee. Each Clintons denied any private data of the prison actions of Epstein and Maxwell. Each additionally denied ever visiting Epstein’s non-public property within the U.S. Virgin Islands.
“As soon as I left workplace, I devoted my time to the Clinton Basis. As a part of the work of the Basis, I accepted affords from others to make use of non-public air journey for the philanthropic and life-saving humanitarian efforts,” former President Clinton wrote. “Within the early 2000s, Mr. Epstein supplied a airplane that was giant sufficient to accommodate me, my employees, and my U.S. Secret Service element, in assist of visiting the Basis’s philanthropic work. As has been broadly reported, I and my employees took journeys on his airplane from 2002-2003, visiting Basis tasks and attending conferences and conferences. I’ve by no means visited Little St. James Island, and I don’t recall talking to Mr. Epstein for greater than a decade previous to his 2019 arrest.”
The previous president acknowledges in his declaration that Epstein “could very effectively have attended” White Home occasions throughout Clinton’s two phrases in workplace and will have been among the many “tens of hundreds” of individuals photographed with him. However Clinton claimed he did “not recall encountering Mr. Epstein, or any particular interplay with him, whereas in workplace.”
Every of the Clintons contend that they’d no involvement — whereas in workplace or afterward — in any prison investigations or prosecutions of both Epstein or Maxwell.
“I didn’t direct, oversee or take part within the dealing with of the investigations or prosecutions of the Epstein or Maxwell circumstances,” each Clintons acknowledged of their declarations.
Each Clintons additionally wrote that they might not recall the circumstances of how they met Maxwell — however keep in mind that she later “started a private relationship with a mutual buddy.”
“To be clear, I had no concept of Mr. Epstein’s or Ms. Maxwell’s prison actions,” former President Clinton wrote. “And, regardless of any intent both could have ever had, I didn’t take any motion for the aim of serving to them to keep away from any kind of scrutiny.”
“Throughout my tenure in public workplace, from 1993 to 2013, I by no means had any accountability for, or involvement with, the Division of Justice’s dealing with of the Epstein and Maxwell investigations or prosecutions,” Hillary Clinton wrote in her declaration.
