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 through AP
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Melina Mara/The Washington Submit through AP
The Republican-led Home Oversight Committee has introduced plans to carry former President Invoice Clinton, and probably 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 point out.”
Among the many information launched by the Justice Division are images of Epstein touring with President Clinton, who has stated he knew nothing of the financier’s crimes and reduce 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 referred to as the subpoenas legally invalid and stated they’ve already offered in writing what little they know.
They stated the push is designed to embarrass political rivals, writing, “Each individual has to resolve once they have seen or had sufficient and are able to struggle for this nation, its rules and its folks.”
Democrats on the oversight committee, who signed off on the subpoenas as half of a bigger record, have famous that many of the different folks haven’t been pressured to testify.
College of Kentucky Legislation professor Jonathan Shaub says the congressional subpoena is a key oversight device, however, “In latest a long time, it is change into increasingly more about scoring political factors or exposing embarrassing materials for the opposite facet and fewer about getting data that Congress really must legislate.”
Shaub, an skilled on the Structure’s separation of powers, says if a contempt decision passes the total 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 the case of congressional contempt resolutions.
“When you will have 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 chief department,” Shaub stated.
In the meantime the Justice Division has but to launch tens of millions 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 generally is a highly effective, albeit not often used device. 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.
