The chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform panel plans to advance a contempt of Congress vote Wednesday against former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, after rejecting a last-minute invitation to interview them in New York.
Committee Chairman James Comer called the Clintons’ offer “ridiculous,” and said his panel will move ahead with votes on contempt resolutions for the former first couple. The two failed to comply with subpoenas to appear on Capitol Hill for closed-door depositions about their relationships with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“The Clintons’ latest demands make clear they believe their last name entitles them to special treatment,” said Mr. Comer, Kentucky Republican.
The Clintons are now poised to become the first former president and former secretary of state to face contempt of Congress charges.
If the measure passes the GOP-led panel, it heads to the House floor for a vote.
Last week, the Clintons offered Mr. Comer a compromise: They would sit for interviews about Epstein, but not in a House committee room and not before the entire panel of lawmakers.
Instead, they invited both Mr. Comer and the panel’s top Democrat, Rep. Robert Garcia of California, to travel to New York to question them.
According to Mr. Comer, the offer would not allow the production of a transcript of the depositions.
“The absence of an official transcript is an indefensible demand that is insulting to the American people who demand answers about Epstein’s crimes,” Mr. Comer said.
“The House Oversight Committee rejects the Clintons’ unreasonable demands and will move forward with contempt resolutions on Wednesday due to their continued defiance of lawful subpoenas,” Mr. Comer said.
The Clintons’ legal team has issued a series of terse letters to Mr. Comer, arguing his subpoenas are legally invalid and aimed at harassing the Clintons.
The legal teams’ latest missive, sent Tuesday, accused Mr. Comer of “a stunning departure” from precedent by rejecting sworn statements provided by the Clintons in lieu of their personal appearance.
The panel accepted sworn statements from at least five other witnesses, including former Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch, who served in the Obama administration.
The lawyers also accused the GOP-led committee of “every-shifting purposes for seeking information from the Clintons,” which they said undermines the enforceability of the subpoenas. The lawyers said all of the committee’s questions were answered in written statements submitted last week.
The panel, the lawyers argue, is trying to create a spectacle by rejecting repeated compromise offers from the Clintons that avoid exposing them to “a deposition where any or all members of the Committee can harass them with questions unconfined to the scope of the Committee’s stated legislative purpose.”
Records show Epstein visited the White House 17 times during Mr. Clinton’s presidency.
The two remained friends for years after Mr. Clinton’s presidency, and he 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 Mr. Clinton’s lap. Another shows the ex-president in a hot tub alongside an unidentified young woman.
Mr. Clinton denies any wrongdoing and has called for the release of all the Epstein files.
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.
