The Republican-led House Oversight Committee has announced plans to hold former President Bill Clinton, and possibly former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in contempt of Congress.
The committee subpoenaed the Clintons for testimony related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, but the pair say they will not testify.
House Oversight chairman James Comer, R-Ky., announced the move after President Clinton declined to appear for a scheduled Tuesday deposition. The committee was seeking testimony from Hillary Clinton on Wednesday.
"No one's accusing the Clintons of any wrongdoing," Comer told reporters. "I just find it odd not only that they didn't show up, but that the Democrats on the committee so concerned about getting to the bottom of the Epstein investigation didn't even bother to show."
Among the files released by the Justice Department are photographs of Epstein traveling with President Clinton, who has said he knew nothing of the financier's crimes and cut ties with him years ago.
In a Tuesday letter to the committee, the Clintons called the subpoenas legally invalid and said they have already provided in writing what little they know.
They said the push is designed to embarrass political rivals, writing, "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."
Democrats on the oversight committee, who signed off on the subpoenas as part of a larger list, have noted that most of the other people have not been forced to testify.
University of Kentucky Law professor Jonathan Shaub says the congressional subpoena is a key oversight tool, but, "In recent decades, it's become more and more about scoring political points or exposing embarrassing material for the other side and less about getting information that Congress actually needs to legislate."
Shaub, an expert on the Constitution's separation of powers, says if a contempt resolution passes the full House and the Justice Department prosecutes the Clintons, it could spark a legal battle with larger implications because there is relatively limited case law when it comes to congressional contempt resolutions.
"When you have cases like this, where there's very little, if any, veneer of a legislative interest, it could end up undermining oversight power at a time where Congress has ceded so much authority to the executive branch," Shaub said.
Meanwhile the Justice Department has yet to release millions of pages of files pertaining to Epstein, weeks after the December deadline set by Congress.
"WHERE ARE THE EPSTEIN FILES," Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., the Oversight committee's ranking member wrote Tuesday on social media.
Contempt of Congress charges can be a powerful, albeit rarely used tool. After failing to cooperate with Democrats for their investigation into the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, two close allies of President Trump, Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro, were sentenced to prison. Each served four months in prison.
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