House committee votes to hold Clintons in criminal contempt for refusing to testify about Epstein

A Republican-led House committee took the unprecedented step of voting 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 committee voted 28-15 to hold Mrs. Clinton in contempt for defying her subpoena.

The resolutions were approved after several hours of debate and Democratic efforts to stall the vote so they could continue negotiating with the Clintons over 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 by a voice vote last year and issued five months ago. Lawmakers sought to question the Clintons about their connection with Epstein, a wealthy investor who killed himself in a New York City jail cell while 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 contempt resolutions move next to a vote by the full Republican-led House. If they pass, then 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 the terms of their testimony. The House won’t consider the contempt resolutions for two weeks, he said.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee barreled ahead with contempt votes despite a string of offers by the Clintons’ legal team to answer the committee’s questions without having to go before lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

The Clinton attorneys called the subpoenas “legally invalid” and said the committee’s pursuit of the couple’s testimony amounted to politically motivated harassment.

No former president has been compelled to testify before Congress. President Ford testified voluntarily before Congress to justify his pardon of former President Richard Nixon for any Watergate-related crimes.

The Clintons’ attorneys extended compromise offers to the Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Last week, they invited Mr. Comer and the committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Robert Garcia of California, to interview the couple in New York.

Mr. Comer rejected the offer 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 that party lawmakers “have questions for former President Clinton.” They said some of those were answered in sworn declarations that the couple provided to the committee.

Mr. Garcia said the committee should continue to negotiate with the Clintons, perhaps in a sit-down, transcribed interview in New York.

The Clintons’ legal team reversed their position on a transcript Wednesday. It emailed the committee hours ahead of the vote that the couple would allow a transcript to be produced if lawmakers traveled to New York for interviews.

“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 committee 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 attorneys have informed the committee 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 made public recently 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 next to Mr. Clinton with her arm around him. Another shows the former 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 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 that the release of more than 5 million files related to the Epstein investigation had 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 with the law and with a subpoena issued by the Oversight and Government Reform Committee in July. Democrats called on the panel to hold Ms. Bondi in contempt of Congress for failing to produce all the files. Ms. Bondi is slated to testify before the House Judiciary Committee on Feb. 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 committee should vote to seek extensive documents and records from Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, where Epstein visited before Mr. Trump banned him in 2003, said Rep. Maxwell Frost, Florida Democrat.

“President Trump’s own Mar-a-Lago club comes up often in connection to Jeffrey Epstein from reporting,” Mr. Frost said.

A federal judge on Wednesday rejected 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.