WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) – Former President and First Lady Bill and Hillary Clinton refused to comply with a House Republican subpoena this week to testify about their relationship to the dead sex predator Jeffrey Epstein, setting up a showdown over potential contempt charges.
The House Oversight Committee had subpoenaed the Democrat power couple to appear as part of its investigation into Epstein and what high-profile friends and associates of his may have evaded justice for complicity in his crimes. The Clintons have been prominent recurring objects of speculation since Epstein’s suicide, between the 42nd president having flown on Epstein’s private plane on dozens of occasions, Epstein’s multiple visits to the Clinton White House, and Clinton’s own history of sexual misconduct.
On January 12, Clinton attorneys penned a letter to the Committee’s chairman, Republican Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, explaining their refusal.
“President and Secretary Clinton have already provided the limited information they possess about Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell to the Committee,” it said. “They did so proactively and voluntarily, and despite the fact that the Subpoenas are invalid and legally unenforceable, untethered to a valid legislative purpose, unwarranted because they do not seek pertinent information, and an unprecedented infringement on the separation of powers.”
Instead, it offered, they would be willing to “certify their draft declarations contained in the letter from (Clinton attorney) David Kendall on January 3, 2026, in which each of the areas of inquiry that you have raised was addressed, no matter how tenuous.”
The Clintons also signed a personal letter to Comer, declaring “now is that time” that they “have seen or had enough and are ready to fight for this country, its principles and its people, no matter the consequences.”
“We are confident that any reasonable person in or out of Congress will see, based on everything we release, that what you are doing is trying to punish those who you see as your enemies and to protect those you think are your friends,” they alleged.
In response, Comer told Just the News that House Republicans have the necessary number of votes to hold the Clintons in contempt, which in turn could be referred to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for prosecution and possible jail time.
“We’ve always had the votes in committee, but I’m confident to report now that we’ve got the votes on the floor. I think the American people have spoken loud and clear,” Comer said Wednesday. “They want to know the truth about Epstein, and Bill Clinton spent as much time with Jeffrey Epstein as any other high-profile person who’s been named in this whole investigation. So the American people expect Bill Clinton to show up for a subpoena, and I think the Republicans are going to vote, and we might even get a few Democrat votes to hold the Clintons in contempt.”
Despite the legal jeopardy, prominent figures of both parties have often flouted congressional subpoenas over the years, including populist podcaster Steve Bannon, former Trump adviser Peter Navarro, and former Democrat attorneys general Eric Holder and Merrick Garland. Over the past decade, however, Republican-aligned offenders have been much more likely to face prosecution for doing so.
The dispute comes amid a tangled web of tensions over the extent of Epstein’s influence, more than six years after he killed himself in his prison cell while being held on charges of trafficking underaged girls to be raped by himself and wealthy associates.
In November, President Donald Trump signed legislation giving the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) 30 days to release whatever documents it still has in its possession pertaining to Epstein in a reversal from his prior dismissal of the effort as a “hoax” and distraction amid months of discontent over his administration’s handling of the situation since returning to office. In a January 5 court filing, the DOJ admitted more than two million unreleased documents were still in “various phases of review and redaction,” and that the government had released “less than 1 percent of the total” material in its possession.
