Former President Invoice Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrive for the inauguration within the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 20, 2025. Home Republicans are in search of testimony from the Clintons about their previous ties with Jeffrey Epstein.
Melina Mara/The Washington Submit by way of AP
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Melina Mara/The Washington Submit by way of AP
The Republican-led Home Oversight Committee has introduced plans to carry former President Invoice Clinton, and presumably former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in contempt of Congress.
The committee subpoenaed the Clintons for testimony associated to convicted intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein, however the pair say they won’t testify.
Home Oversight chairman James Comer, R-Ky., introduced the transfer after President Clinton declined to look for a scheduled Tuesday deposition. The committee was in search of testimony from Hillary Clinton on Wednesday.
“Nobody’s accusing the Clintons of any wrongdoing,” Comer informed reporters. “I simply discover it odd not solely that they did not present up, however that the Democrats on the committee so involved about attending to the underside of the Epstein investigation did not even hassle to indicate.”
Among the many information launched by the Justice Division are images of Epstein touring with President Clinton, who has mentioned he knew nothing of the financier’s crimes and minimize ties with him years in the past.
Home Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., speaks to reporters after former President Invoice Clinton and his spouse, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, refused to look for a deposition as a part of the panel’s investigation into Jeffrey Epstein on the Capitol on Tuesday.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
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J. Scott Applewhite/AP
In a Tuesday letter to the committee, the Clintons known as the subpoenas legally invalid and mentioned they’ve already supplied in writing what little they know.
They mentioned the push is designed to embarrass political rivals, writing, “Each individual has to determine once they have seen or had sufficient and are able to combat for this nation, its rules and its folks.”
Democrats on the oversight committee, who signed off on the subpoenas as half of a bigger listing, have famous that many of the different folks haven’t been compelled to testify.
College of Kentucky Regulation professor Jonathan Shaub says the congressional subpoena is a key oversight software, however, “In latest a long time, it is turn out to be increasingly about scoring political factors or exposing embarrassing materials for the opposite aspect and fewer about getting info that Congress truly must legislate.”
Shaub, an knowledgeable on the Structure’s separation of powers, says if a contempt decision passes the complete Home and the Justice Division prosecutes the Clintons, it may spark a authorized battle with bigger implications as a result of there’s comparatively restricted case regulation in relation to congressional contempt resolutions.
“When you have got instances like this, the place there’s little or no, if any, veneer of a legislative curiosity, it may find yourself undermining oversight energy at a time the place Congress has ceded a lot authority to the manager department,” Shaub mentioned.
In the meantime the Justice Division has but to launch thousands and thousands of pages of information pertaining to Epstein, weeks after the December deadline set by Congress.
“WHERE ARE THE EPSTEIN FILES,” Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., the Oversight committee’s rating member wrote Tuesday on social media.
Contempt of Congress fees is usually a highly effective, albeit hardly ever used software. After failing to cooperate with Democrats for his or her investigation into the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol, two shut allies of President Trump, Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro, have been sentenced to jail. Every served 4 months in jail.
