Comer gives Clintons last chance to testify in Epstein inquiry
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer has set new deposition dates in January 2026 for former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as part of the congressional examination into Jeffrey Epstein. Comer warned that if the Clintons continue to refuse to testify,the committee will initiate contempt of Congress proceedings. this follows previous refusals and legal objections raised by the Clintons’ attorney, which Comer dismissed as attempts to obstruct the investigation. Comer emphasized that any claims of executive privilege must be made during testimony on a question-by-question basis and that ongoing Justice Department investigations do not exempt compliance with subpoenas. The subpoenas are part of a broader probe into how federal agencies handled Epstein’s case and whether institutional failures allowed his sex trafficking operations to continue. The Clintons had previously missed scheduled depositions in December,citing attendance at a funeral,and failed to propose choice dates,prompting the committee to set January dates unilaterally. Republicans say the inquiry aims to hold officials accountable for oversight failures,while Democrats have used the investigation to scrutinize President Biden’s past connections to Epstein.
Comer gives Clintons last chance to testify in Epstein inquiry before contempt proceedings
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) on Monday set new January deposition dates for former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, warning that continued refusal to testify in Congress’s Jeffrey Epstein investigation will trigger immediate contempt of Congress proceedings.
In a sharply worded letter sent to the Clintons’ attorney, David Kendall of Williams & Connolly, Comer rejected arguments that the former officials should be excused from appearing and accused their legal team of mischaracterizing the scope of the investigation while obstructing efforts to schedule testimony.
“The Committee has chosen the date of January 13, 2026, for the deposition of President Clinton and January 14, 2026, for the deposition of Secretary Clinton,” Comer wrote. “If your clients do not comply with these new dates, the Committee will move immediately to contempt proceedings.”
The letter followed Kendall’s Dec. 10 correspondence arguing the Clintons should not be required to testify and seeking additional information about the committee’s investigation. Comer dismissed those requests, writing that neither Kendall nor his clients is entitled to further explanation and that the committee has already clearly stated its legislative purpose.
Comer rejected any assertion that the Clintons can broadly refuse to testify on grounds of privilege. Comer wrote that House deposition rules require any executive or constitutional objections to be raised on a question-by-question basis during testimony rather than as a blanket refusal to appear. He said it was “difficult to understand” how Bill Clinton’s post-presidential interactions with Epstein could implicate executive privilege, emphasized that an ongoing Justice Department investigation does not excuse compliance with a congressional subpoena.
While acknowledging that the Clintons are free to invoke the Fifth Amendment in response to specific questions, Comer added that doing so would conflict with prior representations from their attorneys that neither had knowledge of or involvement in Epstein’s or Maxwell’s criminal activities.
The new January dates follow Kendall’s announcement to committee staff that the Clintons were unable to appear for their previously scheduled December depositions due to their attendance at a funeral. According to Comer’s letter, committee staff offered to reschedule the testimony but requested definitive alternative dates in January.
Kendall declined to provide any, prompting the committee to set the new deposition dates unilaterally.
The subpoenas stem from a bipartisan motion approved by voice vote on July 23 by the Oversight Subcommittee on Federal Law Enforcement, directing Comer to subpoena a wide slate of current and former officials connected to the Epstein investigation. Those subpoenaed include Bill and Hillary Clinton, former FBI Director James Comey, and multiple former attorneys general. Comer formally issued the subpoenas on Aug. 5.
Republicans say the broader investigation is aimed at examining how federal law enforcement agencies handled Epstein’s case and whether institutional failures allowed his sex trafficking operation to persist for years despite repeated warning signs. However, Democrats in recent months have used the inquiry as a means to raise questions about the president’s own past ties to Epstein, and have been accused by Republicans of making selective redactions in certain images and files to make the documents appear more dubious than they appear.
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Bill Clinton’s ties to Epstein have been publicly known for years and included travel aboard Epstein’s private jet after Clinton left office. A spokesperson for the former president has previously said Clinton severed ties with Epstein before his 2019 arrest and was unaware of Epstein’s criminal conduct.
Read the full letter below:
House Oversight Committee – Letter to Clintons by reportoftheday
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