Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrive at the inauguration of President Donald Trump on January 20, 2025 in Washington, DC (Photo by Shawn Thew-Pool/Getty Images)
The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on Wednesday tabled resolutions recommending that former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton be held in contempt of Congress for failing to comply with a subpoena from the panel related to the investigation into tardy sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Votes on both resolutions were along party lines, although Democrats argued over several points during the nearly daylong session. The next step would be full house review. If approved in the House, the matter would be referred to federal prosecutors in Washington, D.C., and could potentially result in a fine of up to $100,000 or even a prison sentence of up to a year.
The Bill Clinton resolution passed by a vote of 34 to 8, with all Republicans and nine Democrats voting in favor.
The Democrats who voted to adopt the resolution were Maxwell Frost of Florida, Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois, Summer Lee of Pennsylvania, Stephen Lynch and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, Emily Randall of Washington, Lateefah Simon of California, Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan.
Yassamin Ansari of Arizona and Dave Min of California voted present. Greg Casar and Jasmine Crockett of Texas did not vote.
The Hillary Clinton resolution was a narrower 28-15, with only three Democrats, Lee, Stansbury and Tlaib, voting in favor.
Clinton and others defied the subpoenas
Republicans on the committee, including Chairman James Comer of Kentucky, said the Clintons had defied subpoenas to provide testimony about Epstein’s long history of sexually abusing teenage girls.
“No witness, former president or private citizen, may willfully defy a properly issued congressional subpoena without consequence,” Comer said. “But that’s exactly what the Clintons did.”
Democrats said they also wanted to hear testimony from the Clintons, whose testimony was ordered through bipartisan subpoenas last year, but Republicans on the committee singled out the couple because of their party affiliation.
Several other officials from both parties who received subpoenas also failed to comply with the subpoena. Neither did Epstein’s co-conspirator Ghislane Maxwell.
In addition, the U.S. Justice Department under President Donald Trump has not released any documents related to the investigation, despite a November law requiring their full release, Democrats on the panel said.
But only the Clintons, influential Democrats, would be prosecuted for their defiance of the committee, Democrats said.
“It’s interesting that Republicans and the chairman wanted to put all their energy into just this subpoena,” said senior Democrat Robert Garcia of California.
Comer responded that the other examples were different. Other officials had less personal knowledge of Epstein than the Clintons; Maxwell had said she would invoke her Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate herself, eliminating the need for testimony; and the Justice Department is working, albeit slowly, to release the millions of legally required documents, he said.
“As I have said publicly many times, we would like to see this process move more quickly,” he said. “There are a lot of documents, a lot of redactions. A lot of attention needs to be paid to that. The Justice Department is complying with that.”
In an open letter The Clintons told Comer last week that they were working to assist the investigation but complained that they were being treated more harshly than other witnesses while criticizing Comer’s handling of the case.
“Despite everything that needs to be done to help our country, you are on the verge of stopping Congress from continuing a rarely used process that is literally leaving us incarcerated,” they wrote. “This is not the way out of America’s ills, and we will defend ourselves vigorously.”
Negotiate or stall?
Members of each party argued over various issues that the panel members had negotiated with the Clintons, such as the location of the interview, whether notes or a transcript would be allowed, and whether the Clintons, like other witnesses, could only testify in writing.
Democrats on the panel said the Clintons and their lawyers worked in good faith with the committee to resolve these issues. But Comer said they would delay the panel’s meeting in hopes that Democrats would take back the House in November.
“We’ve been negotiating for five months,” Comer said. “This is clearly a delaying tactic, hoping the clock runs out and the House flips and you let them all off the hook.”
Contrary to Democrats’ arguments, not every witness was allowed to testify in writing, Comer added, including former Republican U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr.
Hillary Clinton’s acceptance is being questioned
Bill Clinton had a well-documented personal relationship with Epstein, including trips on the billionaire’s private plane. Photos of the two were among the documents released in the first tranche made available by the Justice Department under the November law.
But Garcia on Wednesday objected to the inclusion of Hillary Clinton in the committee’s resolution, saying the available evidence appeared to confirm her public statement that she had no knowledge of Epstein’s activities.
“No one serious about justice for Epstein’s survivors believes that Hillary Clinton was somehow involved in Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes,” Garcia said.
He added that Trump promised to prosecute Hillary Clinton after he won the 2016 presidential campaign against her. Garcia said it appeared Trump was using the federal government as a weapon against a political opponent.
Other Democrats said the committee would enforce Trump’s political prosecution.
Comer said Hillary Clinton had a personal relationship with Maxwell and a financial one with Epstein.
Trump also had a personal relationship with Epstein for years. Democrats on the panel repeated the widespread claim Wednesday that Trump’s Justice Department is protecting the president by resisting the production of documents.
