Bill and Hillary Clinton have drawn criticism for refusing to testify before Congress regarding Jeffrey Epstein, positioning themselves as seemingly untouchable by the law.

Former President Bill Clinton was expected to attend a closed-door deposition with the House Oversight Committee, part of a bipartisan investigation into Epstein, on Tuesday morning. However, he did not appear. Hillary Clinton was also scheduled to testify the following day.

House Oversight’s Republican Chair, James Comer, has pledged to initiate contempt proceedings in response, setting the stage for a potentially lengthy and politically charged process that Congress seldom undertakes.

In a remarkable letter addressed to Comer, the Clintons criticized Donald Trump and the Republican members of Congress, accusing them of furthering his “cruel agenda.”

They asserted that a legal analysis indicated they were not obligated to testify, arguing that the subpoenas represented an extension of what they described as Trump’s “weaponization” of the legal system.

“The Justice Department has been wielded as a tool by the President to target political adversaries. Most recently and shockingly, an ICE agent fatally shot an unarmed mother just days ago,” the Clintons stated in their letter.

‘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, no matter the consequences. For us, now is that time.’

The Clintons cited precedent set by Trump in October 2022 when he defied a congressional subpoena demanding his testimony over the Capitol riot. 

Former president Bill Clinton and a woman are seen in this newly released image from the Epstein estate

Former president Bill Clinton (R) and former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton arrive at inauguration ceremonies swearing in Donald Trump as the 45th president of the United States on the West front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S., January 20, 2017

Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell grinning with Bill Clinton during a VIP tour of the White House

‘A legal analysis prepared by two law firms and provided to you yesterday makes clear your subpoenas are legally invalid,’ the Clintons wrote.

‘You claim your subpoenas are inviolate when they are used against us yet were silent when the sitting President took the same position, as a former president, barely more than three years ago.

‘We call on you to release that analysis to the public to allow them to see how this is yet another example of the casual disregard of the law of the land.

‘All the while, you have done nothing with your oversight capacity to force the Department of Justice to follow the law and release all its Epstein files, including any material regarding us as we have publicly called for.’

Only two other former presidents, John Tyler and Harry Truman, and one sitting president, Richard Nixon, have been formally subpoenaed by Congress to testify. Truman and Nixon both refused to comply.

While the Supreme Court has never definitively ruled on whether a president can be compelled to give testimony to Congress, the DOJ has historically argued that presidents have ‘testimonial immunity’ to protect the separation of powers. 

By relying on the precedent set by Trump, the Clintons are testing whether the courts will treat ex-presidents as a special class above ordinary private citizens. 

Contempt of Congress has taken on greater weight in recent years. Two Trump allies were jailed for defying subpoenas during the investigation into the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol – underscoring that defiance can carry real legal consequences. 

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) (C) shows a notebook of questions he said he was prepared to ask former President Bill Clinton after Clinton did not appear for a closed-door deposition in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill on Tuesday

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee member Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) (R) carries a copy of the painting ‘Parsing Bill’, which was allegedly displayed in deceased child sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein’s home

Comer told reporters: ‘As a result of Bill Clinton not showing up for his lawful subpoena, which was voted unanimously by the committee in a bipartisan manner, we will move next week… to hold former President Clinton in contempt of Congress.’ 

Criminal contempt of Congress is a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in prison and fines of up to $100,000, though referrals are unevenly enforced. 

Clinton has never been accused of wrongdoing in connection with Epstein but had a well-documented friendship with Epstein throughout the 1990s and early 2000s.

Republicans have zeroed in on that relationship as they try to wrestle control over demands for a full accounting of Epstein’s wrongdoing amid pressure on Trump.

Epstein, once a friend of Trump, was convicted of sex crimes and later jailed pending trial for allegedly trafficking underage girls.

The financier died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial, a death officially ruled a suicide but long the subject of conspiracy theories amplified by Trump’s supporters.

The Clintons were subpoenaed in August alongside other current and former officials, including former FBI director James Comey.

Their depositions were initially scheduled for October, then delayed twice – once after Bill Clinton said he needed to attend a funeral.

Bill Clinton was pictured hanging out in a hot tub in the latest tranche of Epstein files released by Congress 

Clinton and the pedophile financer have been pictured together multiple times in the latest tranche of Epstein files released by Congress

A painting of Bill Clinton dressed as a woman that Jeffrey Epstein kept at his home

Clinton’s spokesman Angel Urena has accused Comer of singling out the former president, saying his legal team offered the same terms accepted for other witnesses.

Hillary Clinton’s office has questioned why she was subpoenaed at all, saying the committee had failed to explain the relevance of her testimony.

The dispute comes amid controversy over the Trump administration’s handling of Epstein-related records.

Weeks after a legal deadline to release the Epstein files, the Justice Department has offered up only one percent of the total archive, angering Trump supporters who had expected sweeping disclosures.

Those documents included multiple photographs of Bill Clinton from the early 2000s.

The former president has acknowledged traveling on Epstein’s private plane during Clinton Foundation trips before the financier was charged with any sex crimes, but denies wrongdoing and says he cut ties years before Epstein’s 2006 arrest.

No evidence has emerged implicating either Bill or Hillary Clinton in criminal conduct related to Epstein.