President and Secretary Hillary Clinton Edge Toward Contempt Charges — and Prospect of Prison — as House Set for Historic Vote

The planned vote on Wednesday on whether to hold the Clintons in contempt of Congress could set in motion a process that ends with criminal convictions for President Clinton and his wife, Secretary Hillary Clinton. The House Rules Committee is set for a Monday meeting to consider the resolutions against the Clintons advanced last week by the Oversight Committee. The resolutions, supported by Speaker Mike Johnson, are expected to pass. Nine Democrats – including a disciple of Vice President Harris, Congresswoman Lateefah Simon and two “Squad” members, Congresswomen Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib — voted with Republicans to recommend holding Mr. Clinton in contempt. Three Democrats did the same in the vote with respect to Mrs. Clinton. Both Clintons have been subpoenaed to testify about their relationship with the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. The DOJ has released photographs that show the relationship between Mr. Clinton and Epstein. One photograph shows the former president in a hot tub, and the other features him with a young woman. The Clintons call the photographs “irrelevant.” After Mr. Clinton left office, he traveled on Epstein’s private jet multiple times. Neither of the Clintons, though, appeared to answer questions from lawmakers. The chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Congressman James Comer, said in a statement that “No witness – not a former president or a private citizen — may willfully defy a duly issued congressional subpoena.” Congress, though, lacks the power to prosecute. That task falls to Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Department of Justice.The contempt statutes make failing to comply with a valid subpoena a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in prison and a fine of up to $100,000. Two advisers to President Trump, Stephen Bannon and Peter Navaro, were both prosecuted by President Biden’s DOJ for failing to comply with subpoenas from the House January 6 Committee. They both served four months in prison. Mr. Navarro is now back at the White House.The Clintons released a public letter to Mr. Comer where they declare “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.” They insist that the subpoena are “literally designed to result in our imprisonment” and are “invalid and legally unenforceable, untethered to a valid legislative purpose.”The Clintons have for months been negotiating with Mr. Comer over the terms of their testimony. Mr. Comer is reportedly insisting that the testimony be recorded, while the Clintons are partial to human notetakers. A deal before Wednesday’s vote remains a possibility. Any prosecution of the Clintons would have to contend with a jury drawn from the District of Columbia, a Democratic stronghold where the Clintons remain wildly popular. Mr. Trump won only nine percent of the vote there in 2024.One sign that points to a possible deal is the retention by the Clintons of an attorney, Ashley Cannon, who previously worked for Mr. Johnson as well as Mr. Comer. Ms. Cannon and a veteran Clinton consigliere, David Kendall, write to Mr. Comer that the relentless pursuit of their client “brings us toward a protracted and unnecessary legal confrontation.”Mr. Comer insists that the subpoenas flow from a lawful purpose to the remit of lawmakers to “conduct oversight of the federal government’s enforcement of sex trafficking law generally and specifically its handling of the investigation and prosecution of Mr. Epstein and Ms. Maxwell.” If contempt charges are filed, the Clintons are likely to challenge that assertion and contend that the subpoenas are solely meant to embarrass them.While Mr. Clinton has not yet claimed that he is immune from subpoenas because of the prerogatives of the presidency, his letter to Mr. Comer does argue that “any attempt to require testimony from a former president trenches on the prerogatives of the Executive Branch.” The Clintons write that “no former president has appeared before Congress since 1983, and President Ford did so voluntarily to discuss the upcoming celebration of the 1987 bicentennial of the enactment of the Constitution.”

President and Secretary Hillary Clinton Edge Toward Contempt Charges — and Prospect of Prison — as House Set for Historic Vote

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