House Oversight Chairman James Comer spent four months threatening Bill and Hillary Clinton with contempt of Congress. Then he gave them exactly what they wanted.
On December 12, Comer issued a statement declaring the Clintons must appear for depositions December 17-18 “or schedule a date for early January” or face contempt proceedings. By December 15, Comer had scheduled the January dates himself: January 13 for Bill Clinton, January 14 for Hillary Clinton.
The Clintons never sued to block the subpoena. Unlike Donald Trump, who filed a lawsuit in 2022 when the January 6 committee subpoenaed him, the Clintons simply delayed through their attorney David Kendall. When Kendall informed committee staff on December 10 that his clients couldn’t make the December dates due to a funeral—without specifying whose—Comer had a choice: demand verification or reschedule. He rescheduled.
Comer subpoenaed the Clintons on August 5 following a bipartisan July 23 vote. Of ten people originally subpoenaed, five former attorneys general submitted written statements saying they had no relevant information and were excused. Former FBI directors James Comey and Robert Mueller were excused from live depositions. Only former Attorney General Bill Barr appeared for questioning.
The Clintons became Comer’s sole target. In his November 21 letter to Kendall, Comer argued they couldn’t be treated like the others because “President Clinton and Secretary Clinton had a personal relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.”
That personal relationship went deeper than previously acknowledged. On July 12, 2002, Bill Clinton brought Epstein and Maxwell as his personal guests to King Mohammed VI’s wedding in Morocco. Chelsea Clinton attended separately. Hillary Clinton remained in Washington due to Senate duties.
“[Clinton] brought them as guests to a king’s wedding. I mean, it almost sounds made up,” a source familiar with the situation told the New York Post yesterday. “How many times in your life have you been invited as a guest of a guest at a wedding?”
Once in Rabat, Clinton, Epstein, and Maxwell were seated with the king during the black-tie wedding dinner. Chelsea Clinton requested a group photograph that included her father, Epstein, and Maxwell. A second source told the Post that Clinton “insisted” and “pushed” for Epstein and Maxwell to be brought to the royal wedding.
The relationship continued for years. Maxwell vacationed on a yacht with Chelsea Clinton in 2009. Maxwell attended Chelsea Clinton’s 2010 wedding. Maxwell participated in Clinton Global Initiative conferences as late as 2013—years after Epstein’s 2008 guilty plea for soliciting prostitution from a minor.
Comer’s August 5 subpoena letters detailed specific allegations: Clinton was photographed receiving a massage from one of Epstein’s victims during a trip. Virginia Giuffre claimed in a 2011 email that Clinton “stormed into Vanity Fair” and threatened the magazine not to publish sex-trafficking stories about his “good friend” Epstein. Flight logs show Clinton took at least four trips on Epstein’s private jet between 2002 and 2003.
Regarding Hillary Clinton, Comer noted that Maxwell’s nephew worked for her 2008 presidential campaign and was hired by the State Department shortly after she became Secretary of State. Hillary Clinton’s connection stems from her husband’s relationship and Maxwell’s continued presence in the Clinton family circle through 2013.
The Clintons have made no direct public statements. Spokesmen Angel Ureña and Nick Merrill responded through media statements. In his 2024 memoir “Citizen,” Bill Clinton wrote he “wished he’d never even met Epstein” and had “no inkling of the crimes he was committing.”
Comer’s December 12 statement called the Clintons the only individuals who “intend to defy these subpoenas” and claimed they had “delayed, obstructed, and largely ignored the Committee staff’s efforts to schedule their testimony.” Three days later, he scheduled the depositions for after the holidays.
The January dates avoid forcing a contempt confrontation before Christmas and give the Clintons the delay they sought from the beginning. No former president has been compelled to testify before Congress. When Trump faced a subpoena in 2022, he sued to block it and the committee eventually withdrew it. The Clintons simply waited.
Comer’s threat of immediate contempt proceedings if they don’t comply with the new January dates carries the same weight as his threat they show up in December. Whether the Clintons actually appear in January remains to be seen. For now, Comer blinked first.
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