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Republicans Threaten Bill Clinton With Contempt, Prison For Defying Epstein Subpoena

WASHINGTON – The House Oversight Committee will start contempt of Congress proceedings against former President Bill Clinton, committee chair James Comer (R-Ky.) said Tuesday.

The committee voted last year to subpoena Bill and Hillary Clinton to ask them questions about their relationship with disgraced financier and *** predator Jeffrey Epstein. The vote came shortly after the committee moved in bipartisan fashion to subpoena the Justice Department for its files on Epstein.

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Standing next to an image of Bill Clinton reclining in a blue dress, Comer said the committee just wanted to talk to the former president.

“No one’s accusing Bill Clinton of any wrongdoing,” Comer said. “We just have questions, and that’s why the Democrats voted along with Republicans to subpoena Bill Clinton.”

House Oversight Committee chair James Comer, center, talks Tuesday to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., while Rep. Lauren Boebert holds a picture of Australian artist Petrina Ryan‑Kleid's painting

The committee will vote on holding Bill Clinton in contempt next week, Comer said. If the full House subsequently approved the resolution, it would result in a referral to the Justice Department for prosecution. If convicted, he could be sentenced to prison. Hillary Clinton’s deposition is scheduled for Wednesday; presumably, the committee also would hold her in contempt if she didn’t show.

In a long letter to Comer on Tuesday morning, the Clintons claimed their subpoenas were “legally invalid” and complained other subpoena targets, including several former attorneys general, were excused from having to show up for depositions.

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“Despite everything that needs to be done to help our country, you are on the cusp of bringing Congress to a halt to pursue a rarely used process literally designed to result in our imprisonment,” the Clintons wrote. “This is not the way out of America’s ills, and we will forcefully defend ourselves.”

They went on to say they expected Comer to hold them in contempt. “You may even release irrelevant, decades-old photos that you hope will embarrass us,” the Clintons wrote, adding they hoped other Republicans would prevent the House from passing a contempt resolution.

The prison threat is real. Two former officials of the first Trump administration, Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro, served prison time for defying congressional subpoenas issued by Democrats during the Biden administration.

Like President Donald Trump, Bill Clinton frequently socialized with Epstein; neither has been implicated in his crimes. Epstein died by suicided in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal charges of *** trafficking minors.

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Asked about hauling in Trump for a deposition, Comer said it wasn’t possible to subpoena a sitting president, and there was no need to do so, anyway. “He answers questions every day,” Comer said.

For years, Trump’s allies in right-wing media claimed the government had information that would implicate Epstein’s supposed clients, but the Trump Justice Department said last summer there was no “client list” and no information the department could use to bring new charges. The announcement caused a backlash that resulted in the Oversight Committee approving the subpoenas to the Clintons, the Justice Department and Epstein’s estate.

Photos of Clinton socializing with Epstein featured prominently in the first batch of Epstein files the Justice Department released last month in response to a law requiring the material to be made public. Contrary to the law’s requirements, the department has only made a fraction of its Epstein documents public. Other material released by the committee included photos of Trump and emails from Epstein mentioning Trump.

Comer complained the Democrats didn’t come to the deposition room in a show of bipartisan solidarity.

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“The Democrats on the committee voted with the Republicans for Bill Clinton to come in,” Comer said. “I don’t ever remember a bipartisan vote to subpoena anyone.”

A spokesperson for committee Democrats said they were willing to talk to anyone with relevant information.

“We support former President Bill Clinton’s calls on President Trump to direct Attorney General Bondi to immediately release the full Epstein files, including any material including the former president,” Democratic committee spokesperson Sara Guerrero 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.”

As for the image of Clinton in a blue dress — a photo of a 2012 painting by Australian artist Petrina Ryan‑Kleid — Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), who was holding the poster, said she wanted Clinton to explain it.

“We’re told that this was in one of Jeffrey Epstein’s properties, and I just wanted to ask what the inspiration of this photo was,” Boebert told HuffPost.