Former President Bill Clinton and former First Lady Hillary Clinton have stepped up their fight against the Republican-led investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, with claims it has been “weaponized.”
The Clintons were subpoenaed in August by Rep. James Comer, the Republican chairman of the Oversight Committee, who has now threatened to begin contempt of Congress proceedings against them if they fail to appear for questioning.
David Kendall, the Clintons’ attorney, has now accused the investigation of trying to take the heat off Donald Trump, in a letter sent last week.
“President Trump has consistently sought to divert attention from his own relationship with Mr Epstein and unfortunately the committee appears to be complicit,” the letter read.
Kendall also accused Comer of using “weaponized legislative investigations and targeted criminal prosecutions,” as he argued his clients were being held to a different standard than others who had been subpoenaed.
Five former attorney generals who were subpoenaed by Comer were allowed to give written statements, as were former FBI directors James B. Comey and Robert S. Mueller III. Only one person, former Attorney General William Barr, appeared before Congress in person.
Three letters have been sent by Kendall since August, with the attorney even meeting with Comer’s team in September to discuss his committee’s request.
Since then, Comer has ramped up his attacks on the Clintons.
“The former president and former secretary of state have delayed, obstructed and largely ignored the committee staff’s efforts to schedule their testimony,” he said in a statement on Friday.
He reiterated his demand that they appear before his committee on December 17 and 18 or at a scheduled date in January. The criminal contempt charges that he threatened against the Clintons can come with a one-year prison sentence, as well as a fine of $100,000.
However, in one of the letters, Kendall said that neither Bill or Hillary Clinton had ever visited Epstein’s island or had knowledge of crimes committed by the disgraced financier or Ghislaine Maxwell.
He added that Bill Clinton made a total of six flights, one domestic and five international, on Epstein’s plane, but that all of those trips were for the former president’s philanthropic work.
“President Clinton’s contact with Epstein ended two decades ago, and given what came to light much after, he has expressed regret for even that limited association,” Kendall added.
Philippe Reines, a former staffer for Hillary Clinton, said that trying to use the Epstein case for political ends will backfire for the Republicans.
“Even a first-year law student knows finding someone politically contemptible isn’t the basis for legal contempt,” he told the New York Times.
“But if Republicans want to spend 2026 fixated on their endless vendetta against the Clintons rather than runaway prices, we’ll happily take the extra House seats.”
Meanwhile, Trump has dismissed newly released photographs of himself with Epstein as “no big deal.”
One image showed a grinning Trump with six women, whose faces were blurred out. The president has not been accused of any wrongdoing and continues to maintain that he cut ties with Epstein, whom he described as a “creep.”
The passing of the Epstein Files Transparency Act by Congress meant that the Department of Justice was handed a 30-day deadline to release all documents related to the Epstein investigation. The deadline falls on Friday, December 19.
The chaos surrounding the bill’s passage opened up deep divisions in the president’s MAGA base, with Trump tearing into former loyalist Marjorie Taylor Greene, who had called for the release of the files.
Dubbing her “Marjorie ‘Traitor’ Green” and “Marjorie Taylor Brown,” Trump claimed that the Epstein investigation was a Democratic “hoax.”
The Independent has contacted Kendall and the DOJ for comment.
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