WASHINGTON — The Republican-led Home Oversight Committee introduced Tuesday that it’ll search to carry former President Invoice Clinton in contempt of Congress after he failed to look for a deposition as a part of the panel’s probe into the late convicted intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“On account of Invoice Clinton not displaying up for his lawful subpoena, which once more was voted unanimously by the committee in a bipartisan method, we are going to transfer subsequent week within the Home Oversight Committee markup to carry former President Clinton in contempt of Congress,” Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., instructed reporters Tuesday morning on Capitol Hill.
The committee had scheduled a deposition with Clinton for Tuesday morning, in addition to a deposition with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for Wednesday.
In a letter to Comer, the Clintons mentioned they did not plan to look for the depositions.
“Each particular person has to resolve after they have seen or had sufficient and are able to struggle for this nation, its ideas and its folks, regardless of the implications,” the Clintons wrote. “For us, now could be that point.”
The Clintons additionally addressed the prospect of the committee voting to carry them in contempt.
“We anticipate you’ll direct your committee to hunt to carry us in contempt,” they wrote, including, “You’ll say it isn’t our resolution to make. However now we have made it. Now it’s a must to make yours.”
Comer subpoenaed the Clintons to look for depositions for testimony associated to the previous president’s relationship with Epstein. The committee initially scheduled the couple’s depositions for final October.
On Tuesday, Comer mentioned that the panel voted on a bipartisan method, unanimously, to subpoena them.
“Nobody’s accused of Invoice Clinton of any wrongdoing. We simply have questions,” Comer mentioned, “And that’s why the Democrats voted together with Republicans to subpoena Invoice Clinton.”
In December, Comer mentioned he would postpone the depositions for a second time as a result of the Clintons wanted to attend a funeral, however he mentioned the Clintons’ lawyer, David Kendall, was “unwilling to offer any different dates” for his or her testimony, so he was setting the depositions for mid-January.
Former President Clinton’s spokesperson, Angel Ureña, mentioned of Comer in December, “For months, we’ve been providing the identical actual factor he accepted from the remaining, however he refuses and received’t clarify why. Make of that what you’ll.”
Hillary Clinton’s spokesperson, Nick Merrill, additionally mentioned in assertion final month, “Since this began, we’ve been asking what the hell Hillary Clinton has to do with this, and he hasn’t been in a position to give you a solution.”
The primary set of Epstein recordsdata launched by the Division of Justice in December contained quite a few footage of Invoice Clinton, who Ureña mentioned had flown on Epstein’s airplane for Clinton Basis journeys within the early 2000s, earlier than Epstein was charged with any intercourse crimes. There have been a collection of undated footage, for instance, with Epstein’s girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, and what regarded like a visit to Thailand. It is unclear when the pictures have been taken.
Former President Clinton has denied any wrongdoing and has mentioned he was unaware of Epstein’s crimes. He has mentioned that he reduce ties with Epstein earlier than Epstein was accused in 2006 of getting intercourse with a minor. Ureña mentioned in December that every one pictures and references to Clinton within the authorities’s recordsdata ought to be launched.
Ureña mentioned in a publish on X after the discharge that the “White Home hasn’t been hiding these recordsdata for months solely to dump them late on a Friday to guard Invoice Clinton. That is about shielding themselves from what comes subsequent, or from what they’ll try to disguise eternally. To allow them to launch as many grainy 20-plus-year-old pictures as they need, however this isn’t about Invoice Clinton. By no means has, by no means might be.”
Earlier than the recordsdata have been publicly launched, White Home chief of workers Susie Wiles instructed Self-importance Honest that she had learn the Epstein case file and mentioned Trump “was improper” to counsel that there was something incriminating about Clinton within the data.
The Justice Division has mentioned it’s nonetheless reviewing hundreds of thousands of pages of recordsdata “probably” associated to Epstein for doable launch.
