Bill and Hillary Clinton announced they would not comply with a subpoena demanding congressional testimony about their relationships to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, while launching an extraordinary attack on Republicans and Donald Trump.
The Republican-led House oversight committee in August subpoenaed the former president and first lady after its chair, James Comer, announced the panel would review the government’s handling of Epstein, a convicted sex offender who died by what was determined to be suicide while awaiting trial in 2019.
In a letter to Comer dated Monday, attorneys for the Clintons called the subpoenas “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 demand for testimony “runs afoul of the clearly defined limitations on Congress’ investigative power propounded by the Supreme Court of the United States”, they wrote, adding that “it is clear the subpoenas themselves – and any subsequent attempt to enforce them – are nothing more than a ploy to attempt to embarrass political rivals, as President Trump has directed”.
Bill Clinton’s subpoena commanded him to appear for testimony by Tuesday, and Hillary Clinton by Wednesday. After the former president did not show up, Comer told reporters at the Capitol that he would move to hold him in contempt next week.
“I think it’s important to note that this subpoena was voted on in a bipartisan manner by this committee. This wasn’t something that I just issued as chairman of the committee,” Comer said.
“No one’s accusing Bill Clinton of anything, any wrongdoing. We just have questions, and that’s why the Democrats voted along with Republicans to subpoena Bill Clinton.”
Clinton was known to be friendly with Epstein in the late 1990s and early 2000s, before the financier pleaded guilty in 2008 to state charges of solicitation of prostitution and solicitation of prostitution with a minor in Florida.
The former president has denied knowledge of Epstein’s crimes and survivors of his abuse have not accused Trump of wrongdoing.
Sara Guerrero, a spokesperson for Democrats on the oversight committee said, “Cooperating with Congress is important and the committee should continue working with President Clinton’s team to obtain any information that might be relevant to our investigation.”
In a separate statement, the Clintons criticized Comer’s handling of the inquiry, saying it had “prevented progress in discovering the facts about the government’s role”. They noted that the committee had interviewed only two people as part of its investigation – former labor secretary Alexander Acosta and former attorney general William Barr – while declining to question seven former top government officials even though they had been issued subpoenas.
They went on to attack Republicans’ acquiescence to the president’s agenda, including their support of hardline immigration enforcement, the recent killing of a US citizen in Minnesota by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent and the president’s pardoning of January 6 insurrectionists.
“Bringing the Republicans’ cruel agenda to a standstill while you work harder to pass a contempt charge against us than you have done on your investigation this past year would be our contribution to fighting the madness,” the Clintons wrote.
Controversy over the government’s handling of the Epstein case erupted last July, when the justice department released a memo declaring the matter closed, which flew in the face of conspiracy theories that Trump and his top officials had expressed sympathy for while campaigning in 2024.
In the months that followed, a bipartisan group of House lawmakers forced a voted on legislation to release all government files related to Epstein, which passed in November over the opposition of Congress’s Republican leaders and Trump.
Though some documents were redacted, Clinton is shown in several photographs that became public when the justice department began releasing batches of files in December, including one of the former president in a hot tub and swimming in a pool.
The department continues to release the Epstein files, even though the legislation required the justice department to release all of the files by 19 December. Last week lawmakers asked a federal judge to appoint a special master to compel the release of all documents related to the late financier.
