Republican House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer announced he would begin proceedings to hold Hillary Clinton in criminal contempt of Congress.
It came one day after the GOP lawmaker said he would also begin proceedings next week against former President Bill Clinton.
The former president and secretary of state both defied congressional subpoenas to give closed-door depositions to the House Oversight Committee as it investigates Jeffrey Epstein.
The former president did not show up for his deposition on Tuesday and the former secretary of state did not show up for hers on Wednesday.
“We are going to hold both Clintons in criminal contempt of Congress,” Comer told reporters Wednesday.
The Clintons’ lawyers and Republican lawmakers have been engaging over the demand for depositions for months. In response to the chairman’s scheduled closed-door in-person interviews this week, the Clintons released a scathing letter to Comer on Tuesday.
The pair noted that the majority of the witnesses subpoenaed last summer in the probe into the convicted sex offender were allowed to provide sworn statements, which they too had offered to give.
The Clintons blasted the committee for not doing more to force the Justice Department to release files as required by law after it missed the deadline to release all documents and accused the Kentucky lawmaker of engaging in partisan politics.
“We are confident that any reasonable person in or out of Congress will see, based on everything we release, that what you are doing is trying to punish those who you see as your enemies and to protect those who you think are your friends,” They wrote.
The former president has been photographed numerous times with the late disgraced financier in the files released so far, but he has denied any wrongdoing.
Comer said that investigators wanted to question the former secretary of state about Epstein’s accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, after she was invited to Chelsea Clinton’s wedding.
He noted that the subpoenas were issued with bipartisan support last summer amid outrage that the Trump administration had not released the files as the president had once promised.
Pressed on whether his committee should be more focused on trying to obtain the rest of the Epstein files released, Comer insisted they’ve received “hundreds of thousands of pages” of documents and were still focused on getting more of the files.
The Kentucky Republican said that he will begin contempt proceedings against the Clintons on January 21.
