By STEPHEN GROVES
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican chair of the House Oversight Committee threatened Friday to begin contempt of Congress proceedings against former President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton if they refuse to appear for depositions as part of the committee’s investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.
Rep. James Comer, a Kentucky Republican, said in a statement late Friday that the Clintons had “delayed, obstructed, and largely ignored the Committee staff’s efforts to schedule their testimony” for several months and said the committee would begin proceedings to try to force them to testify if they don’t appear next week or schedule an appearance in January.
Comer’s statement came just hours after Democrats on the committee had released dozens of photos they had received from Epstein’s estate, including images of Clinton and President Donald Trump.
Contempt is one of U.S. lawmakers’ politically messiest and, until recent years, least-used powers. But the way Congress has handled demands for disclosure in the investigation into Epstein has taken on new political significance as the Trump administration faces a deadline next week to release the Department of Justice’s case files on the late financier.
Bill Clinton was among a number of high-powered people connected to Epstein, a wealthy financier, before the criminal investigation against him in Florida became public two decades ago. Clinton has never been accused of wrongdoing by any of the women who say Epstein abused them.
One of Epstein’s victims, Virginia Giuffre, once gave a newspaper interview in which she described riding in a helicopter with Clinton and flirting with Trump, but she later said in a deposition that those things hadn’t actually happened and were mistakes by the reporter. Clinton has previously said through a spokesperson that while he traveled on Epstein’s jet, he never visited his homes and had no knowledge of his crimes.
Multiple former presidents have voluntarily testified before Congress, but none has been compelled to do so. That history was invoked by Trump in 2022, between his first and second terms, when he faced a subpoena by the House committee investigating the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, riot by a mob of his supporters at the U.S. Capitol.