Bill and Hillary Clinton refused testification in Epstein case, Republican seek contempt action

Former US President Bill Clinton and Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have refused to testify in relation to the Jeffrey Epstein case. Only 1 per cent of the total Epstein files have been released by the US Department of Justice, and those have significant mentions of Bill Clinton. The Republican-led House oversight committee announced on Thursday that it will seek to hold former President Bill Clinton in contempt of Congress.

“We’ve communicated with President Clinton’s legal team for months now, giving them opportunity after opportunity, to come in, to give us a day, and they continue to delay, delay, delay to the point where we had no idea whether they’re going to show up today or not," said James Comer, Chair of the House Oversight Committee for Epstein Files.

Bill and Hillary Clinton explained their decision to the House oversight committee in a letter that was shared on the social media platform X by Hillary Clinton.

Also Read: Trump 'diverting attention' from himself as Bill and Hillary Clinton are avoiding testifying in Epstein case

Both Hillary and Bill have been dodging the testimony in Congress since August 2025, when they were subpoenaed to testify before Congress. Their attorney has argued that the subpoenas are "legally invalid" and "unenforceable". Hillary Clinton has described the range of actions that she deemed unprecedented and dangerous. The letter by Hillary argues that House Oversight Chair James Comer is engaged in a partisan attempt to vilify them. It does very little to uncover the truth. She argues that they have less direct knowledge of the case related to those who have been subpoenaed and quietly dismissed.

"Despite everything that needs to be done to help our country, you are on the cusp of bringing Congress to a halt to pursue a rarely used process literally designed to result in our imprisonment," read the letter. "This is not the way out of America's ills, and we will forcefully defend ourselves."

Clinton's spokesperson, Angel Ureña, said of Comer in December, “For months, we’ve been offering the same exact thing he accepted from the rest, but he refuses and won’t explain why.”

Representative Ro Khanna, Democrat- California, has said that everyone implicated, even if they are democrats, should explain. Ro Khanna is a member of the House Oversight Committee and led a bipartisan push to force a floor vote on the release of the Epstein files last year.