WASHINGTON — House Republicans announced plans Wednesday to pursue a contempt of Congress citation against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton after she declined to testify in a congressional investigation examining ties to the late financier Jeffrey Epstein.
House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., said the Republican-led panel will vote next week on holding Hillary Clinton in criminal contempt for failing to appear at a scheduled deposition. The decision follows a similar move announced a day earlier targeting former President Bill Clinton, who also did not attend his deposition.
“We’re going to hold both Clintons in criminal contempt of Congress,” Comer told reporters, adding that the committee will advance the measures to the full House if approved.
Dispute over subpoenas
The Oversight Committee issued subpoenas to both Clintons last year as part of its probe into Epstein and his network of associates. Their depositions were originally scheduled for October but were postponed to December due to a funeral the Clintons attended, according to Comer. When no alternative dates were agreed upon, the committee rescheduled the appearances for mid-January.
In a letter sent Tuesday to Comer, the Clintons said they would not comply, arguing that the subpoenas were “legally invalid.” They cited legal analyses prepared by two law firms, which their attorneys said were shared with the committee earlier this week.
“Every person has to decide when they have seen enough and are ready to stand up for the country and its principles,” the Clintons wrote, signaling they expected the committee to move forward with contempt proceedings.
Their attorneys, Ashley Callen and David E. Kendall, separately argued that the subpoenas lack a legitimate legislative purpose, do not seek relevant information, and improperly intrude on the separation of powers.
Comer rejected those claims, saying the committee negotiated “in good faith” with the Clintons’ legal team for months. “We have bent over backwards,” he said.
Political and legal context
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., weighed in earlier this week, saying that failure to comply with congressional subpoenas could constitute contempt of Congress.
Hillary Clinton’s spokesperson, Nick Merrill, has criticized the investigation, questioning its relevance. “We’ve been asking what Hillary Clinton has to do with this,” Merrill said in a previous statement, adding that the committee has not provided a clear explanation.
Hillary Clinton has not been accused of wrongdoing related to Epstein, and her name has not appeared in the thousands of documents released so far by the Justice Department under the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
Bill Clinton, who is also not accused of criminal conduct, has acknowledged past contact with Epstein but has said he severed ties well before Epstein was charged in 2006 with crimes involving a minor. Photos of Bill Clinton appeared in an initial batch of released files last month.
The Justice Department has said more than 2 million Epstein-related documents remain unreleased, despite a statutory deadline that passed in December.
What comes next
The House Oversight Committee is expected to vote on the contempt resolutions next Wednesday. If approved, the measures would be sent to the full House for consideration, potentially escalating a high-profile standoff between congressional Republicans and two of the most prominent figures in Democratic politics.
