Clintons refuse to testify in Epstein probe ‘designed to result in our imprisonment’

By Stephen Groves January 14, 2026 — 6.21am Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Save articles for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. Got it Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size Washington: Former US president Bill Clinton and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton are refusing to comply with a congressional subpoena to testify in a House committee’s investigation of Jeffrey Epstein. The Clintons, in a letter released on social media early Wednesday (AEDT), slammed the House Oversight probe as “legally invalid” even as Republican lawmakers prepared contempt of Congress proceedings against them. Former US president Bill Clinton and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton. Credit: AP The Clintons wrote that the chair of the House Oversight Committee, Republican Representative James Comer, is on the cusp of a process “literally designed to result in our imprisonment”. “We will forcefully defend ourselves,” wrote the Clintons, who are Democrats. They accused Comer of allowing other former officials to provide written statements about Epstein to the committee, while selectively enforcing subpoenas against them . The intensifying clash adds another dimension to the fight over Epstein, raising new questions about the limits of congressional power to compel testimony. It also comes when Republicans are grappling with the Justice Department’s delayed release of the Epstein files after a bipartisan push for their release. Comer said he would begin contempt of Congress proceedings next week. It potentially starts a complicated and politically messy process that Congress has rarely reached for and could result in prosecution from the Justice Department. “No one’s accusing the Clintons of any wrongdoing. We just have questions,” Comer told reporters after Bill Clinton did not show up for a scheduled deposition at House offices on Tuesday, Washington time. Advertisement He added, “Anyone would admit they spent a lot of time together.” Clinton has never been accused of wrongdoing in connection with Epstein but had a well-documented friendship with the wealthy financier throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. Jeffrey Epstein and Bill Clinton together in an undated image released last year as part of the so-called Epstein files. Credit: AP Republicans have zeroed in on that relationship as they wrestle with demands for a full accounting of Epstein’s wrongdoing. “We have tried to give you the little information we have. We’ve done so because Mr. Epstein’s crimes were horrific,” the Clintons wrote in the letter. Epstein was arrested in 2019 on federal sex trafficking and conspiracy charges. He killed himself in a New York jail cell while awaiting trial. Loading Multiple former presidents have voluntarily testified before Congress, but none has been compelled to do so. That history was invoked by President Donald Trump in 2022, between his first and second terms, when he faced a subpoena by the House committee investigating the deadly January 6, 2021, riot by a mob of his supporters at the US Capitol. Trump’s lawyers cited decades of legal precedent...

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