In Bipartisan Votes, House Panel Advances Clintons’ Contempt Citations

In bipartisan votes, the House committee investigating convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein advanced contempt of Congress citations against former first couple Bill and Hillary Clinton for their failure to testify in the inquiry. 

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee voted Wednesday on the citations after the former president and former secretary of state refused a subpoena to testify about Epstein. The citations would next move to the House Floor for a vote by the full chamber.

Nine committee Democrats joined 25 Republicans to hold Bill Clinton in contempt of Congress, in a lopsided 34-8 vote. However, most committee Democrats objected to holding Hillary Clinton in contempt, with three Democratic members joining Republicans in a 28-15 vote.

Contempt of Congress is a criminal charge punishable by up to a year in prison or a $100,000 fine.

“Today, the Clintons must be held accountable for their actions. And Democrats must support these measures, or they will be exposed as hypocrites,” House Oversight Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., said during the markup of the citation.

“Subpoenas are not mere suggestions. They carry the force of law and require compliance,” Comer added. “Since issuing the subpoenas, this committee has acted in good faith. We’ve offered flexibility on scheduling. The response we received was not cooperation, but defiance, marked by repeated delays, excuses, and obstruction.”

The committee had originally subpoenaed the Clintons for a closed-door deposition on Capitol Hill.

To head off the contempt vote, the Clintons offered to allow only Comer and ranking member Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., to meet with Bill Clinton in New York. A key condition of the offer was no written transcript of the interview. Also, Hillary Clinton would not be interviewed under the offer.

Garcia preferred not to compel testimony from Hillary Clinton.

“It’s not clear to me and many others as to why Secretary Clinton has been a target of this investigation,” Garcia said. “The Secretary submitted a sworn declaration, under penalty of perjury, that she had no memory of ever meeting Mr. Epstein, never flew on his plane, never held any office with responsibility for investigating his activities.”

Comer noted that Garcia had voted to subpoena the fomer secretary of state.

Comer ultimately turned down the Clintons’ offer, insisting a written transcript was essential for Bill’s interview. 

Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to felony solicitation of prostitution, as well as procurement of minors to engage in prostitution. He died in a New York prison cell in 2019 in what was determined to be a suicide. 

On July 23, 2025, Republicans and Democrats on the House Oversight Subcommittee on Federal Law Enforcement unanimously approved a motion to issue subpoenas to ten individuals, including the Clintons, as part of its investigation into Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell.

The 42nd president was once photographed in a swimming pool at Epstein’s estate, appearing with both Maxwell, who was convicted of helping Epstein perpetrate crimes, and another woman whose face was blocked out. The photo was published in a batch of Epstein files released by the Justice Department in December. 

Comer has argued that Hillary Clinton should also be questioned about Epstein, as she is a former secretary of state whose agency has an office to combat international sex trafficking.

Further, Epstein was a donor to the Clinton Foundation and has claimed to be a founding donor of the Clinton Global Initiative. 

The committee initially requested the 42nd president’s deposition on Oct. 14, 2025, while the former secretary of state’s was set for Oct. 9. Those depositions were later postponed to Dec. 17 and Dec. 18 respectively, but the Clintons said they had to attend a funeral at that time. The committee moved the dates once again to January 2026.

On Wednesday, Angel Urena, a deputy chief of staff for Clinton, posted on social media that the Clintons had attempted to cooperate with the committee, “and Republicans REFUSE to say yes.”

After the Clintons refused to show up for their scheduled depositions–Bill Clinton on Jan. 13, and Hillary Clinton on Jan. 14–Comer announced the committee would move to hold the former first couple in contempt of Congress. 

The Clintons argued last week in a letter to Comer that the move to require their testimony was partisan and could not be legally enforced.

The committee has investigated what missteps federal law enforcement may have taken in the Epstein case, and the vast connections the deceased convict had. 

The Clintons are not the only prominent political figures to face contempt of Congress charges in recent years.

In a different investigation, Trump White House adviser Peter Navarro and former Trump campaign and White House adviser Steve Bannon were both prosecuted in 2022 and served prison sentences for not complying with subpoenas from the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol. 

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