Legal counsel for former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is pushing back hard against demands from House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer that they testify before his panel in connection with its Jeffrey Epstein investigation.
Comer, R-Ky., has threatened to begin contempt of Congress proceedings against the couple if they do not appear in person for depositions, and is refusing to excuse them from giving live depositions, reports The New York Times.
In August, Comer issued subpoenas to the Clintons along with eight former top law enforcement officials.
However, he has withdrawn subpoenas for five former attorneys general who said they had no knowledge that would be relevant to the probe, and has excused former FBI directors James Comey and Robert Mueller from being required to appear for live depositions.
Former Attorney General William Barr is the only person from the list who has appeared to testify.
The Clintons have offered to provide sworn statements to the committee, but Comer has accused them of ignoring his subpoenas and has threatened to hold them in contempt.
The charges could carry up to one year in prison, along with a fine of up to $100,000.
David Kendall, a longtime attorney for the Clintons, has sent three letters to the committee, detailing arguments that the couple should be required only to provide sworn statements.
"The former president and former secretary of state have delayed, obstructed and largely ignored the committee staff's efforts to schedule their testimony," Comer said in a statement Friday.
He also said he would start contempt proceedings if the couple does not appear before his committee on Wednesday and Thursday of this week, or potentially schedule hearings for early January.
Kendall said in a letter last week that Comer is weaponizing legislative investigations, and said that it was inappropriate that they be held to different standards than other subpoenaed people who were excused.
He also accused President Donald Trump of seeking to "divert attention from his own relationship with Mr. Epstein" and said that the committee "appears to be complicit," according to the letter, one of the three provided to The New York Times by an unnamed Democrat lawmaker.
Kendall added that Comer is targeting the Clintons "to catalyze a public spectacle for partisan purposes."
Bill Clinton has acknowledged that he was acquainted with Epstein but said he never visited his private island. He has also claimed to have cut off contact with Epstein more than 20 years ago.
According to flight logs, Bill Clinton took four international trips on Epstein's private jet in 2002 and 2003.
Further, an undated photograph of Bill Clinton and Epstein, which the former president signed, was part of the images House Democrats released last week.
Kendall, meanwhile, said the request for information from Hillary Clinton, Trump's 2016 campaign rival, was confusing, as she had "no personal knowledge of Epstein or Maxwell's criminal activities, never flew on his aircraft, never visited his island, and cannot recall ever speaking to Epstein."
In a follow-up letter on Nov. 3, Kendall said subpoenaing her was "both purposeless and harassing."
Comer's subpoena says that Alexander Djerassi, who had previously worked for Bill Clinton during her 2008 presidential campaign and again at the State Department, was related to Epstein partner Ghislaine Maxwell, but Kendall said Bill Clinton never knew that they were related.
Bringing Bill Clinton to testify on Capitol Hill would be almost unprecedented, as no other former president has appeared before Congress since 1983, when former President Gerald Ford appeared to talk about the celebration of the bicentennial of the enactment of the Constitution which then occurred in 1987.
Trump was subpoenaed to testify before the Jan. 6 select committee in 2022, after his first term in office ended, but he sued the panel to block the action, and the panel ended up withdrawing the subpoena.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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