- A House panel decides to hold former President Bill Clinton in contempt.
- James Comer cites Epstein’s White House visits and Clinton flights.
- The Clintons describe the subpoenas as partisan and accuse the investigation of being politically motivated.
Bill and Hillary Clinton on Tuesday refused to testify in a Republican-led congressional investigation into the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, saying it was a partisan exercise.
“Each person has to decide when they have seen or had enough and are willing to fight for this country, its principles and its people, regardless of the consequences,” the Clintons wrote in a letter to Republican Rep. James Comer, who chairs the House Oversight Committee. “For us, now is the time.”
Comer said the committee will meet next week to hold former Democratic President Bill Clinton in contempt. This could potentially lead to criminal charges.
A committee spokesman said the panel will also begin contempt proceedings against Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, if she does not appear before the panel on Wednesday.
The Clintons said they had tried to provide what “little information” they had to help with the investigation and accused Comer of diverting attention from the Trump administration’s actions. Epstein died in prison in 2019, during President Donald Trump’s first term, while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges. His death was considered a suicide.
“If the Government did not do everything possible to investigate and prosecute these crimes, for whatever reason, that should be the focus of their work… There is no evidence that they are doing so,” the Clintons wrote.
“There is no other plausible explanation for what they are doing other than partisan politics,” they said.
Epstein’s visits and flights to the White House
Comer said “most Americans” want Bill Clinton to answer questions about his ties to Epstein. The Kentucky Republican said Epstein visited the White House 17 times while Clinton was in office and that the former president had flown on Epstein’s plane about 27 times.
Clinton has expressed regret about the relationship and has said she knew nothing about Epstein’s criminal activity. No evidence has emerged that Clinton was involved in sex trafficking.
“No one is accusing Bill Clinton of any crime,” Comer said. “We just have questions.”
The US Justice Department has been releasing files linked to criminal investigations of Epstein, who was once a friend of Trump and the Clintons, in compliance with a transparency law passed by Congress.
A separate letter sent to the committee on Monday by the Clintons’ lawyers said subpoenas for their testimony were invalid, unenforceable and “nothing more than a ploy to attempt to embarrass political rivals, as President Trump has ordered.”
