Former US President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday that they will not testify to Congress in an investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.
The Clintons said they would not comply with a House subpoena requesting that they give evidence to the inquiry.
In a letter posted on social media, they described the House Oversight probe as “legally invalid” and said the chair of the House Oversight Committee, Republican James Comer, was on the cusp of pursuing a process “literally designed to result in our imprisonment”.
“We will forcefully defend ourselves,” the couple wrote.
They referred to “unprecedented acts” carried out by the US government in the last year as a means to justify the decision, saying “students and scientists… have been deported without due process”, “the Justice Department has been used as a weapon”, and “an ICE agent killed an unarmed mother only days ago”.
This is the latest controversy in the Epstein case, and raises new questions over how much power Congress actually has in terms of compelling people to testify.
Comer has said he will begin contempt of Congress proceedings against the Clintons next week.
It potentially starts a complicated and politically messy process 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.
“Anyone would admit they spent a lot of time together,” he added, referring to the former president’s relationship with Epstein.
Thousands of files relating to the convicted sex offender were released in batches in late December.
Some of the photos in those files featured the former Democratic president.
One shows Clinton in a pool with British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted of child sex offences in relation to Epstein, and with another person whose face is redacted. Another photo shows Clinton in a hot tub with a woman whose face is redacted.
Clinton has never been accused of wrongdoing in connection with Epstein.
He has acknowledged that he travelled on Epstein’s private jet but said, through a spokesperson, that he had no knowledge of the late financier’s crimes.
Epstein was arrested in 2019 on federal sex trafficking and conspiracy charges. He killed himself in a New York prison cell while awaiting trial.
Multiple former presidents have voluntarily testified before Congress, but none have 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 riot by a mob of his supporters at the US Capitol in 2021.
Trump’s lawyers cited decades of legal precedent they said shielded an ex-president from being ordered to appear before Congress. The committee ultimately withdrew its subpoena.
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