‘We Will Forcefully Defend Ourselves’: Clintons Refuse Subpoena in Epstein Inquiry as Republicans Threaten Contempt Proceedings

Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are refusing to testify in the House Oversight Committee’s investigation into the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, despite Republicans’ threats to seek to hold the couple in contempt of Congress.

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

In a letter addressed directly to Republican Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, the chairman of the Oversight Committee, the Clintons accused him of being “on the cusp of bringing Congress to a halt to pursue a rarely used process literally designed to result in our imprisonment.”

“This is not the way out of America’s ills, and we will forcefully defend ourselves,” they said in the letter, which Bill Clinton shared on X.

The Clintons both received congressional subpoenas to appear for closed-door depositions in the Epstein inquiry. The former President did not appear for his deposition on Tuesday, the deadline set for his appearance. The deadline for the former Secretary of State’s deposition was Wednesday.

In a separate letter to Comer on Monday, the couple’s lawyers said 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.”

The Clintons “have already provided the limited information they possess about Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell to the Committee,” and did so “proactively and voluntarily,” their attorneys said. The letter contended that Comer’s “continued insistence” that he could compel the couple to appear for the depositions “brings us toward a protracted and unnecessary legal confrontation,” but added that the Clintons would be willing to certify draft declarations they had previously provided in an “extraordinary accommodation” in order to avoid such a clash.

Comer indicated on Tuesday that the House Oversight Committee would begin proceedings to hold Bill Clinton in contempt of Congress.

“We’ve communicated with President Clinton’s legal team for months now, giving them opportunity after opportunity to come in to give us a day, and they continue to delay, delay, delay,” Comer told reporters.

He also said that, “No one’s accusing Bill Clinton of anything, any wrongdoing; we just have questions.”

In their personal letter to Comer, the Clintons said that “if the Government didn’t do all it could to investigate and prosecute these crimes, for whatever reason, that should be the focus of your work—to learn why and to prevent that from happening ever again.” 

But, they continued, “there is no evidence that you are doing so. Instead, you have forced the victims to relive their painful experiences, while doing little to give them and everybody else what’s deserved: truth and justice. There is no plausible explanation for what you are doing other than partisan politics.”

The couple said that they had given Comer statements, just as multiple other people he had subpoenaed did who he then excused from testifying.

The Clintons also said that Comer has the “immense power to target anyone and subject them to closed door interrogation and more,” adding that his priorities in the committee’s Epstein investigation “have prevented progress in discovering the facts about the government’s role.” And they went on to criticize him for not doing more to force the Department of Justice (DOJ) to release all the files in the Epstein case.

Read more: What Is—and Isn’t—in the Newly Released Epstein Files

The DOJ was given a December deadline to release all the files in the Epstein case under the Epstein Files Transparency Act that was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Donald Trump in November. The department began releasing materials in the case on the day of the deadline, but has yet to release all the files, indicating earlier this month that it is still reviewing more than two million documents beyond the thousands it has so far made public. The incomplete and heavily redacted initial releases have met with widespread backlash from lawmakers, survivors of Epstein’s abuse, and the American public.

Bill Clinton’s name and photos have appeared in multiple files previously released in connection with the case, along with those of several other high-profile people with ties to Epstein. The former President has denied any knowledge of the late sex offender’s crimes and said he never visited Epstein’s island. 

After the DOJ released an initial tranche of documents under the Epstein Files Transparency Act that repeatedly featured Bill Clinton, his deputy chief of staff, Angel Ureña, accused the Trump Administration of “shielding themselves” from scrutiny and called for all materials in the case that included Bill Clinton to be released, saying he does not require any such “protection.”

The Clintons said in their letter that they expected Comer would direct the House Oversight Committee to seek to hold them in contempt, and that “you may even release irrelevant, decades-old photos that you hope will embarrass us.” But they stood resolute in their decision to defy the subpoenas, saying that for Comer to say he couldn’t complete the investigation without speaking to them “is simply bizarre.”

“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,” the Clintons said. “Continue to mislead Americans about what is truly at stake, and you will learn that Americans are better at finding the truth than you are at burying it.”