Washington — The House Oversight Committee on Wednesday recommended holding former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in contempt after the pair refused to appear before the Republican-led panel, which is investigating the Justice Department’s handling of the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.
“The committee does not take this action lightly,” Republican Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, the committee’s chairman, said ahead of the vote. “But subpoenas are not mere suggestions. They carry the force of law, and require compliance. Former President Clinton and Secretary Clinton were legally required to appear for depositions before this committee. They refused.”
Several Democrats voted with Republicans to recommend holding them in criminal contempt of Congress, advancing the issue to the full House for a vote on whether to find them in contempt and refer the matter to the Justice Department. Nine Democrats voted to advance the resolution related to Bill Clinton, while three Democrats supported the Hillary Clinton measure.
Comer said he believed the full House would vote on the resolutions in two weeks.
“I expect a lot of Democrats to vote on this on the floor,” Comer said.
On Tuesday, House Oversight Republicans said the Clintons’ attorneys “made an untenable offer” for the GOP chairman and top Democrat on the committee to travel to New York to speak with Bill Clinton. The proposal allowed each lawmaker to bring two staff members and the meeting would not be transcribed, according to the committee. Comer rejected the offer.
A Clinton spokesperson denied the transcript stipulation, saying “interviews are on the record and under oath.”
The committee subpoenaed the Clintons in August, along with former Justice Department officials dating back to George W. Bush’s administration. Since then, only Bill Barr, who served as attorney general during President Trump’s first term, has provided closed-door testimony to the committee, while the panel has accepted written statements from the others.
Comer said the committee accepted statements from other former officials because they weren’t photographed with Epstein or Maxwell, “nor is there any evidence that they were directly involved in the investigation.”
When asked if Mr. Trump should also be subpoenaed, Comer said the president has already answered a lot of questions from the media.
“There’s never been a sitting president come under oath in an Oversight Committee hearing,” Comer said when it was noted that answers to questions from journalists aren’t under oath. “There’s nothing that I’ve seen that implicates President Trump.”
Photos of Bill Clinton have appeared in the Epstein-related materials released by the Justice Department, along with references to the current president, though neither have been accused of wrongdoing. Comer cited a “documented relationship” between the Clintons and Epstein on Wednesday, which he said was “evidenced by numerous photographs, flight-log records, wedding invitations and other materials.”
In letters to the committee last week explaining their decision not to appear, the Clintons and their legal team accused Comer of trying to embarrass and punish Mr. Trump’s political rivals. Their lawyers vowed to fight the subpoenas, calling them “invalid and legally unenforceable” because they did not have a valid legislative purpose.
The Clintons submitted sworn declarations to the committee last week describing their interactions with Epstein.
In his declaration, Bill Clinton said Epstein offered his private plane to the former president, his staff and his Secret Service detail in support of the Clinton Foundation’s philanthropic work between 2002 and 2003. He denied ever visiting Epstein’s private island in the Virgin Islands, where a number of the late financier’s alleged crimes occurred, and maintained that he had not been in contact with Epstein for more than a decade before his 2019 arrest.
Hillary Clinton, in her declaration, said she did not recall encountering Epstein or any specific interactions with him. She also said she never flew on his plane or visited his private island.
The Clintons also did not recall when they met convicted Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell or their interactions with her, but said she later was in a relationship with a mutual friend of theirs. They did not remember exactly when their last interaction with Maxwell was beyond “many years ago.”
“To be clear, I had no idea of Mr. Epstein’s or Ms. Maxwell’s criminal activities,” their declarations said.
“And, irrespective of any intent either may have ever had, I did not take any action for the purpose of helping them to avoid any type of scrutiny,” Bill Clinton’s declaration added.
Asked by Democratic Rep. James Walkinshaw of Virginia whether a demand that questions go beyond the scope of the Epstein investigation is a sticking point between the committee and the Clintons, Comer said everything pertains to the Epstein files. When Walkinshaw followed up, asking if he would be willing to limit the conversation to the Epstein issue, Comer agreed.
“I think the Clintons’ lawyers have been under a different impression,” Walkinshaw said.
“The Clinton lawyers are full of crap,” Comer replied.
Jonathan Shaub, a law professor at the University of Kentucky, said both Clintons have strong arguments for why they should not be compelled to testify, and the potential decision to prosecute puts the Justice Department in a tricky position that could have ramifications for Mr. Trump and officials in his administration if Democrats have control of Congress and the executive branch.
“There are some past Justice Department opinions that suggest, particularly with President Clinton, that a former president is immune from compelled congressional testimony,” Shaub, who worked in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel during the Obama administration, told CBS News.
That argument would not apply to Hillary Clinton, though the committee would have to establish that it has a specific legislative interest in having her testify, Shaub said.
“That’s a harder argument to make given what exists in the public record,” Shaub said, referring to Hillary Clinton’s absence in the Epstein files that have been made public. “She would have stronger arguments in the prosecution to say that they don’t have a legislative interest here.”
In Tuesday’s statement, Comer said the committee is seeking testimony from Hillary Clinton “given her knowledge from her time as Secretary of State of the federal government’s work to counter international sex-[trafficking] rings, her personal knowledge of Ms. Maxwell, and her family’s relationship with Mr. Epstein.”
Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, said Democrats also want the former president to answer questions.
“Two things can be true. It can be true that we want to hear from the Clintons and that it’s important that we hear from them and that we want to enforce our subpoena,” Garcia said. “I think it can also be true that they have also begun clearly making efforts to answer questions by declaration, to negotiate coming in to give testimony.”
The California Democrat noted that Bill Clinton has called for the immediate and full release of the Epstein files, while criticizing the Justice Department’s release so far.
“Donald Trump is leading a White House cover-up right now of the Epstein files,” Garcia said. “And it is shameful, illegal and unconstitutional that the Department of Justice has released 1% of the files. Where is the pressure to get [Attorney General] Pam Bondi to release the files?”
Comer said Bondi, who is set to testify before another House committee next month, and the Justice Department is producing the documents and complying with the law compelling it to do so, though he acknowledged “the pace is slower than any of us would prefer — and must speed up.”
Comer also announced that the committee has scheduled a Feb. 9 deposition with Maxwell. He said that he’s been told by her lawyers that she plans to invoke the Fifth Amendment.