The House Oversight Committee will seek to hold former Secretary of state Hillary Clinton in contempt of congress after she did not appear for a scheduled deposition as part of the Republican-led panel’s inquiry into Jeffrey Epstein, committee Chairman James Comer announced Wednesday.
The move comes a day after Comer said the committee would seek to hold former President Bill Clinton in contempt for failing to appear for his scheduled deposition on Tuesday.
“We’re going to hold both Clintons in criminal contempt of Congress,” Comer told reporters Wednesday morning.
The Oversight Committee will vote on both contempt measures next Wednesday and then bring them to the House floor,” he said.
The committee had negotiated in good faith with the Clintons’ attorneys for five months, Comer said.
“We have bent over backwards,” he said.
The committee subpoenaed the Clintons last year. They were scheduled to appear in October, but that was later pushed to December as of their attendance at a funeral. Comer said the Clintons’ lawyer did not provide choice dates, so he rescheduled their depositions for mid-January.
In a letter to Comer on Tuesday, the Clintons argued that the subpoenas were “legally invalid” and said they did not plan to appear for depositions. The letter cited legal analysis prepared by two law firms,which they said they provided to the committee Monday.
“Every person has to decide when they have seen or had enough and are ready to fight for this country, its principles and its people, no matter the consequences,” the Clintons wrote.”For us, now is that time.”
The letter also said the Clintons expected the committee to vote to hold them in contempt, saying that “you will say it is not our decision to make. But we have made it. Now you have to make yours.”
The Clintons’ lawyers, Ashley Callen and David E. Kendall, wrote in a separate letter to Comer on monday that the subpoenas were ”invalid and legally unenforceable” because they are “untethered to a valid legislative purpose, unwarranted because they do not seek pertinent information, and an unprecedented infringement on the separation of powers.”
on Monday, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said of the Clintons, “I think it would be contempt of Congress if they didn’t turn up.”
Authorship & Contributions Verification – NBC News Article
Here’s a breakdown of the authorship and contributions as presented in the provided HTML snippet, verified against publicly available information as of 2026/01/14 15:49:54.
Confirmed Authors:
* Raquel Coronell Uribe: NBC News confirms Raquel Coronell Uribe is a breaking news reporter. (https://www.nbcnews.com/author/raquel-coronell-uribe-ncpn1310088)
* Rebecca Shabad: NBC News confirms Rebecca Shabad is a politics reporter based in Washington. (https://www.nbcnews.com/author/rebecca-shabad-ncpn854016)
Confirmed Contributors:
* Kyle Stewart
* Brennan Leach
* Monica Alba
Verification Status: As of 2026/01/14 15:49:54, the listed authors and contributors remain associated with NBC News in their stated roles, according to their official NBC News author pages and general news reporting. No conflicting information was found. There are no breaking news updates regarding their roles or contributions as of this time.
