House Republicans could initiate contempt of Congress proceedings against former US president Bill Clinton and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton.

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Former US president Bill Clinton and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton said Tuesday, January 13, they will refuse to comply with a congressional subpoena for them to testify in an investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.

The Clintons slammed a Republican-controlled committee’s attempts as “legally invalid” as GOP lawmakers prepare contempt of Congress proceedings against them. In a letter released on social media Tuesday, the Clintons told the chair of the House Oversight Committee, Republican Representative James Comer, he was on the cusp of a process “literally designed to result in our imprisonment.”

Comer said he will begin contempt of Congress proceedings next week. That would potentially start a complicated and politically messy process that Congress has rarely reached for.

  • UnderpantsWeevilEnglish
    341·
    2 days ago

    Omg, are we finally going to see a Congress that’s serious about enforcing subpoena power?

    Cause I remember the J6 Committee subpoenas getting laughed off five years ago.

    Beyond Scavino, the panel has also subpoenaed former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, former adviser Steve Bannon and Kash Patel, a former chief of staff to then-Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller.

    And a quick Where Are They Now query indicates none of them went to jail. Hell, Kash Patel is running the FBI. What a twist!!

    I gotta wonder what was going on back then…

    If President Joe Biden truly believes, as he’s said, that the executive branch cannot stonewall Congress, his administration should start by recognizing that individual members of Congress have oversight powers.

    …

    The DOJ has interpreted “Congress” to mean only the full House or Senate or their committees or subcommittees — but not individual members. This interpretation provides the executive branch with a loophole, allowing it to stymie valid information requests from individual members of Congress by limiting the type of information individual members can access. According to this loophole, members of Congress — who are duly elected and have sworn an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States — can access only documents and correspondence that are available to the general public. This DOJ loophole is at odds with the principles of our democracy, and it undermines Article I of our Constitution.

    Damn that Extremist Conservative DOJ! Ah well, nothing we can do. Just didn’t have the votes to change things back then.