Bill and Hillary Clinton refused to testify on Capitol Hill Tuesday as part of the House Oversight Committee’s Jeffrey Epstein investigation, despite lawmakers threatening to impeach them.
“You’ll say it’s not our decision to make. But we made it. Now you have to make yours,” the Clintons wrote in an apparent challenge to Republican Speaker James Comer, who set a final deadline for appearances this week.
Comer told reporters Wednesday that the committee would meet next week to move forward with proceedings on Bill Clinton — leaving the door open that the former secretary of state could still change her mind.
The move marks an escalation in the commission’s efforts to bring in the former president for a closed-door interview as part of the Epstein investigation. Successful contempt votes by the GOP-controlled House would be both symbolic — as rebukes for Clinton — and could be used as a tool to compel her to testify. There could also be legal consequences if the former president continues to resist cooperation and the courts or the Justice Department decide to accept it.
“It is important to note that this subpoena was voted on in a bipartisan manner by this committee. This was not something that I issued just as chairman of the committee. It was voted on by the entire committee in a unanimous vote of the House Oversight Committee to subpoena former President Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton,” Hillary Clinton said. “Now Hillary Clinton should appear tomorrow. We’ll see what happens there.”
The Clintons laid out their personal and legal troubles with the request in a series of letters, obtained by CNN, written by themselves and their lawyers.
The pair claimed in letters that they had been unfairly singled out – noting that seven other in-person appearances cited had been dropped. Calling the commission’s subpoenas “invalid and legally unenforceable,” they pointed to what they said were unprecedented harms imposed by the administration.
“Each person must decide when they have seen or had enough and are ready to fight for this country, its principles and its people, regardless of the consequences. For us, now is the time,” they wrote.
They later added, “Indeed, stopping the Republicans’ cruel agenda while you work harder to pass a contempt charge against us than you did in your investigation last year would be our contribution to the fight against insanity.”
After the caucus meets next week, House GOP leadership is expected to schedule a vote on the House floor. A vote by the full House to hold Clinton in criminal contempt of Congress would set up a referral to the Justice Department, which would then have to decide whether to prosecute.
The panel unanimously issued subpoenas to Clinton in August for depositions and negotiated privately with their legal counsel to try to set a date for both Clintons to appear for closed-door interviews.
The Clintons claimed they were “trying to give you the little information we have.”
“We did this because Mr. Epstein’s crimes were horrific,” they told Comer. “If the Government has not done everything it can to investigate and prosecute these crimes, for whatever reason, that should be the focus of your work – to find out why and prevent it from happening again. There is no evidence that you are doing that.”
But Comer appeared unmoved.
The president noted that Epstein visited the White House 17 times when Bill Clinton was president and that he flew on Epstein’s plane about 27 times after he was president.
“To my knowledge, former President Clinton has never answered any questions about Epstein, and I’ve only had questions because, again, I think anyone would … admit that they spent a lot of time together while Bill Clinton was president and post-president, and again, no one has accused Clinton of anything. We just have questions,” he said Tuesday.
Among the thousands of documents related to Epstein that the Justice Department has been forced to release, several are never-before-seen photos of Bill Clinton with Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
One image shows a shirtless Bill Clinton in a jacuzzi next to another person whose face is redacted. There are additional shots of him swimming in a pool adjacent to Maxwell. These images show another woman swimming with Bill Clinton and Maxwell, but her face is redacted.
Another showed Bill Clinton holding a glass and sitting next to Epstein, who killed himself in 2019 while in prison awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges.
It is not clear where or when these photos were taken.
Bill Clinton has never been charged by law enforcement with any wrongdoing related to Epstein, and a spokesman has repeatedly said he cut ties with Epstein before his arrest on federal charges in 2019 and had no knowledge of his crimes.
“The White House did not hide these files for months only to release them late on a Friday to protect Bill Clinton,” Angel Ureña, Clinton’s spokesman, said in a statement in December when the photos were released. “It’s about protecting themselves from what’s coming or what they’re going to try to hide forever. So they can release as many grainy photos from over 20 years as they want, but it’s not about Bill Clinton.”
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee also released photos from Epstein’s estate showing the many powerful figures in the late sex offender’s orbit, including Bill Clinton. In one photo, he is pictured with Epstein, Maxwell and another couple.
CNN’s Ellis Kim contributed to this report.
For more CNN news and newsletters, create an account at CNN.com