January 13, 2026
Former President Bill Clinton and his wife former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are defying a bipartisan congressional subpoena and are refusing to testify in front of the house oversight committee about what they know about Jeffrey Epstein.
That was the chairman of the House Oversight committee James Comer a Republican from Kentucky today. And the consequence for not showing up may be severe for the former president.
More on the contempt part in a second. But first it is true that no one is accusing Bill Clinton or Hillary Clinton of any wrong doing related to Epstein or his sex trafficking ring. But it’s also true, as I reported, there were several never before seen photos of former President Clinton released as part of the first drop of Epstein files a few weeks ago. And it’s also true that the both democrats and republicans in the Oversight committee voted to subpoena the Clintons to have them come in and testify. Back in august the committee actually subpoenaed the Clintons, the department of justice and eight former government officials including other former attorneys general like president Trump’s former AG Bill Barr. Barr did actually come in to testify to the committee. But several others on that subpoena list did not. Former AGs, like Eric Holder and Merrek Garland had their subpoenas from the oversight committee dropped after they said they had no personal knowledge of the specific Epstein files or events relevant to the committee’s investigation.
Today Clintons released this four page letter today suggesting they’d be willing testify publicly to the entire house committee but they don’t believe the subpoena they received for this deposition is valid. Mostly because the committee dropped the subpoenas of the others on the subpoena list simply because they said they didn’t have any additional information. The Clintons said “we have tried to give you the little information we have. We’ve done so because Mr. Epstein’s crimes were horrific. If the government didn’t do all it could to investigate and prosecute these crimes, for whatever reason, that should be the focus of your work – to learn why and to prevent that from happening ever again.” The statement goes on to say “you accepted the least from those who know the most but demand the most from those who know the least. To say you can’t complete your work without speaking to us is simply bizarre.”
Now let’s talk about defying a congressional subpoena. If someone defies a congressional subpoena the House can vote to hold that person in contempt and if that resolution is passed the consequence can range form a symbolic slap on the wrist – to that contempt being referred to the department of justice for criminal prosecution. We saw that play out with trump allies Peter Navarro and Steve Bannon just a few years ago. Remember? They both defied House subpoenas and refused to testify in front of the January 6 committee and ended up in prison. But here’s the thing – a former president is very different than a political advisor. And it seems President Clinton is taking a page out of President Trump’s play book. President trump also defied a house subpoena from the January 6th committee back in 2022. They wanted him testify and to turn over documents and communications related to his actions in and around January 6th. Trump never showed up to testify, he never turned over documents and he never complied. Instead he sued to block the subpoena. Ultimately, the January 6 committee disbanded after the democrats lost the majority and trump’s subpoena was dropped. It appears that President Clinton is going down this same route.
Now – back to that Clinton letter real quick it’s unclear who exactly they’re referring to when they said the committee is “accepting the least from those who know the most.” Who knows the most? Who are those people. Chairman comer was asked about one person who is named in the Epstein files and was not on the committee’s subpoena list.
I’ll tell you how we can find who knows what…the department of justice can follow the Epstein transparency act and release all the files. But chairman comer says he sees nothing wrong with the way attorney general Pam Bondi is handling this case.
Read the Clintons’ letter here.
Watch the Oversight Chairman’s statements here.
