In an unprecedented move, a Republican-led House Committee voted to hold former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in criminal contempt of Congress for refusing to testify on Capitol Hill about their relationship with sex offender and accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
The Oversight and Government Reform Committee voted 34-8 to hold Mr. Clinton in contempt for defying committee subpoenas compelling them to appear separately for closed-door depositions earlier this month. The panel voted 28-15 to hold Mrs. Clinton in contempt for defying her subpoena.
The contempt resolutions were approved after several hours of debate and efforts by the panel Democrats to stall the vote so they could further negotiate with the Clintons for their testimony.
Nine Democrats voted along with all Republicans to hold Mr. Clinton in contempt. Three Democrats and all Republicans voted to hold Mrs. Clinton in contempt.
“No witness, not a former president or a private citizen, may willfully defy a duly issued congressional subpoena without consequence, but that is what the Clintons did, and that is why we are here today,” said Committee Chairman James Comer, Kentucky Republican.
The Clinton subpoenas were approved in a voice vote last year and issued five months ago. Lawmakers sought to question the Clintons about their once-close connection to Epstein, a wealthy investor who killed himself in a New York City jail cell awaiting federal prosecution on charges of sex trafficking underage girls.
“The Clintons’ testimony is critical to understanding Epstein’s sex trafficking network and the ways he sought to curry favor and influence to shield himself from scrutiny,” Mr. Comer said. “Their testimony may also inform how Congress can strengthen laws to better combat human trafficking.”
The two contempt resolutions move next to a vote by the full GOP-led House. If they pass, the resolutions will be referred to the Justice Department and Attorney General Pam Bondi, who will decide whether to prosecute the Clintons. Mr. Comer said the Clintons have additional time to negotiate providing their testimony. The House won’t consider the contempt resolutions for two weeks, he said.
The Oversight panel barreled ahead with contempt votes despite a string of offers by the Clintons’ legal team to answer the committee’s questions without having to do so in front of lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
The Clinton lawyers called the subpoenas “legally invalid,” and said the panel’s pursuit of the couple’s testimony amounted to politically motivated harassment.
No former president has been compelled to testify before Congress. Former President Gerald R. Ford was the last president to appear voluntarily as a witness. Ford testified before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution in March 1983 about the upcoming bicentennial of the Constitution.
The Clintons’ lawyers extended compromise offers to the Oversight panel.
Last week, they invited Mr. Comer and the panel’s top Democrat, Rep. Robert Garcia of California, to interview the couple in New York.
Mr. Comer rejected the offer on Tuesday and reported that the Clintons would have prohibited the production of a transcript of the interview.
“What few proposals the Clintons’ massive legal team has made aren’t acceptable, and I don’t think anyone is going to stand up here willing to publicly argue that they were,” Mr. Comer said.
Democrats rejected the contempt resolutions but acknowledged party lawmakers “have questions for former President Clinton,” but said some of those were answered in sworn declarations the couple provided to the committee.
Mr. Garcia said the panel should continue to negotiate with the Clintons, perhaps in a sit-down, transcribed interview in New York.
The Clintons’ legal team on Wednesday reversed their position on a transcript, emailing the committee hours ahead of the vote that they would allow one to be produced if lawmakers traveled to New York to interview them.
“We all want to get to the truth. We all want to get to survivors. It is clear to me President Clinton is negotiating to come before this committee … let’s get them in front of this committee,” Mr. Garcia said.
He said the panel should subpoena the testimony of Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted of sex trafficking and is serving a 20-year prison sentence.
“Where are the contempt charges to bring her into this committee to answer the questions?” Mr. Garcia said.
Mr. Comer said Maxwell will be deposed in February, but her lawyers have informed the panel that she will invoke her Fifth Amendment right to remain silent to avoid self-incrimination.
Records show Epstein visited the White House 17 times during Mr. Clinton’s presidency.
The two remained friends for years after Mr. Clinton left the White House in 2001. Mr. Clinton was a frequent guest on Epstein’s private jet. Mr. Clinton denies visiting Epstein’s private island in the Caribbean, where many of the sex crimes took place, although other witnesses said he was there.
In federal investigatory files recently made public by the Justice Department, Mr. Clinton appears in undated Epstein photos that appear to be from the 2000s. One of them shows a young woman, purportedly an Epstein sex trafficking victim, on Epstein’s jet, sitting on an armrest on Epstein’s jet next to Mr. Clinton with her arm around him. Another shows the ex-president in a hot tub alongside an unidentified young woman and in a swimming pool with Maxwell and an unidentified female.
Mr. Clinton denies any wrongdoing and has called for the release of all the Epstein files.
Democrats complained that the Justice Department has failed to release all of the federal government’s Epstein files nearly two months after President Trump signed a bill ordering the documents to be released. Only about 1% of the government’s stash of documents have been published.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, Florida Republican, said Justice Department officials informed her the release of more than five million files related to the Epstein investigation has been slowed by efforts to protect the identities and privacy of his many victims.
“They have been complying. We all wish that it was moving much faster, but there’s a lot of documents. They are making triple and quadruple sure that the victims’ personal information is redacted,” Mr. Comer said.
Mr. Garcia called the Justice Department’s excuses “a lie,” and said the department has had months to comply not only with the law, but a subpoena issued by the Oversight panel in July. Democrats called on the panel to hold Ms. Bondi in contempt of Congress for failing to produce all of the files. Ms. Bondi is slated to testify before the House Judiciary Committee on February 11.
Mr. Garcia also accused Mr. Trump of orchestrating a cover-up to protect himself.
Mr. Trump and Epstein palled around decades ago. The president said their friendship ended long before Epstein’s 2008 conviction on charges of soliciting prostitution from a minor. Democrats say the evidence shows he was aware of the sex trafficking and should be questioned by the committee.
The panel should vote to seek extensive documents and records from Mr. Trump’s Palm Beach Mar-a-Lago club, where Epstein visited before Mr. Trump banned him in 2003, Rep. Maxwell Frost, Florida Democrat, said.
“President Trump’s own Mar-a-Lago club comes up often in connection to Jeffrey Epstein from reporting,” Mr. Frost said.
The House panel’s vote followed a federal judge’s ruling on Wednesday rejecting a request by members of Congress to appoint an independent “special master” to oversee the Justice Department’s handling of the release of the Epstein files, saying their request wasn’t properly made.
