House Oversight Committee Approves Contempt Resolutions Against Clintons | EUROtoday

WASHINGTON – The House Oversight Committee on Wednesday voted to carry former President Bill Clinton and former first woman Hillary Clinton in contempt of Congress for defying subpoenas.

The committee had requested the Clintons to sit down for depositions about their relationship with the late financier and intercourse predator Jeffrey Epstein. Like Donald Trump, Bill Clinton was photographed repeatedly in Epstein’s firm. Neither man has been implicated in Epstein’s crimes.

Nine Democrats joined all of the committee’s Republicans in voting for the contempt decision towards Bill Clinton. Three Democrats voted for the decision on Hillary Clinton.

The deal with the Clintons is probably going a welcome diversion for Republicans, who’ve been caught between their loyalty to Trump, who has known as the Epstein matter a “Democrat hoax,” and calls for from their base for the Epstein recordsdata to be made public.

While Trump’s Justice Department has dragged its toes in complying with a regulation requiring the discharge of all of its recordsdata on Epstein, the Clintons defied deadlines set by the committee for them to come back to the Capitol to sit down for depositions.

“The Clintons’ testimony is critical to understanding Epstein’s sex trafficking network and the ways he sought to curry favor and influence to shield himself from scrutiny,” Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) mentioned earlier than the vote.

Comer complained that the Clintons’ attorneys tried to delay the committee’s motion by making unrealistic affords, comparable to having the previous president sit for an untranscribed interview in New York. “The response we received was not cooperation, but defiance, marked by repeated delays, excuses, and obstruction,” Comer mentioned.

If the total House approves the contempt decision, it could be referred to U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro for prosecution, that means the Clintons may face jail time. Two former officers from President Donald Trump’s first time period went to jail for defying subpoenas issued by Democrats throughout Joe Biden’s presidency. Comer mentioned the Clintons would have two weeks to adjust to the subpoena earlier than the total House votes.

“They will have another opportunity,” Comer mentioned.

Before the vote, Democrats mentioned they believed individuals ought to adjust to their subpoenas, however complained that Republicans have been being extra aggressive in imposing the Clinton subpoenas than the committee’s separate subpoena demanding that the Justice Department hand over its recordsdata on Epstein.

“It’s interesting that it’s this subpoena only that Republicans and the chairman have been obsessed about putting all their energy behind,” mentioned Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), the committee’s prime Democrat.

The Justice Department mentioned earlier this month it had solely uploaded round 12,000 of greater than 1 million recordsdata from its investigation of Epstein, who killed himself in jail in 2019 whereas going through federal intercourse trafficking expenses. Last yr, Congress handed a regulation requiring all of the paperwork to be put on-line in a searchable database by Dec. 19.

Several Democrats instructed Attorney General Pam Bondi needs to be held to the identical normal because the Clintons, however the committee voted down an modification from Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) to carry Bondi in civil contempt.

“If this committee wants to be taken seriously, we would be addressing all the bad actors in this investigation, not cherry-picking,” Lee mentioned.

Lee voted in favor of the Bill Clinton subpoena together with fellow Democrats Maxwell Frost (Florida), Raja Krishnamoorthi (Illinois), Stephen Lynch (Mass.), Ayanna Pressley (Mass.), Emily Randall (Wash.), Lateefah Simon (Calif.), Melanie Stansbury (N.M.) and Rashida Tlaib (Mich.). Only Lee, Stansbury and Tlaib voted for the Hillary Clinton subpoena.