Bill and Hillary Clinton have refused to testify in the House Oversight Committee’s “investigation” into accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein because wouldn’t you, if you were the target of Republicans seeking to protect their beloved pedophile-adjacent president by going after literally everyone else?
Now, the House is threatening to hold former President Clinton in contempt for skipping out on this charade.
The ever-feckless New York Times framed this as “the couple escalated their battle with Representative James R. Comer, the chairman of the Oversight Committee, who said he would move to hold them in contempt of Congress.”
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Not sure how the Clintons can be framed as escalating a battle when it’s clear they are under attack from House Republicans who have very openly refused to investigate President Donald Trump’s ties to Epstein, despite overwhelming evidence of Trump’s ties to the convicted sex offender.
The Clintons wrote a lengthy, thoughtful letter about their refusal, highlighting that targeting them is just one small part of the Trump administration’s comprehensive attacks on Americans and the rule of law. They also pointed out what a sham this inquiry is:
The facts speak for themselves: You subpoenaed eight people in addition to us. You dismissed seven of those eight without any of them saying a single word to you. You made no attempt to force them to appear. In fact, since you started your investigation last year, you have interviewed a total of two people. Two.
The Trump administration has tried its damnedest to hang the Epstein problem around the Clintons’ necks, including making sure to release photos of Bill Clinton during its December release of a tiny fraction of the Epstein files. The administration also made sure to disappear 16 files after they were posted, including one of Donald and Melania Trump palling around with Epstein and his accomplice, convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell.
One of the photos was even redacted to make it look as if Bill Clinton was photographed with Epstein’s victims. People quickly figured out that the picture of Clinton, Michael Jackson, and Diana Ross had been public for decades, and the redacted “victims” were Ross and Jackson’s children.
Miraculously, the House Oversight Committee announced it had cleared Alex Acosta, Trump’s former secretary of labor, of all wrongdoing last October, after a brief chat where Acosta made sure to declare that no siree, he never talked to Donald Trump at all about Epstein.
The notion that Bill Clinton is somehow more culpable than Acosta, who gave Epstein a sweetheart plea deal when he was a U.S. attorney that allowed Epstein to reenter polite society and sexually assault more children, is absurd.
Comer, the second-dumbest member of the House (looking at you as No. 1, Jim Jordan), wants you all to know that this is totally aboveboard.
"No one’s accused of Bill Clinton of any wrongdoing. We just have questions,” Comer claims.
Uh-huh.
Speaking of Jim Jordan …
He also used to believe it was cool, good, and righteous to refuse to honor subpoenas to testify before Congress, as he did when he defied one in 2022 requiring him to appear before the Jan. 6 committee.
Saber-rattling about subpoenas and contempt is a ridiculous move from conservatives who championed Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro’s refusal to honor a congressional subpoena from the Jan. 6 committee. Navarro was jailed for four months after being convicted of contempt and was hailed as a hero, with Trump whining that Navarro was “treated horribly by the Deep State, or whatever else.”
Related | Trump gives masterclass with Epstein files on how to appear very guilty
The letter from the Clintons also gently reminded Comer that there’s someone else who loves not appearing before Congress but somehow did not get threatened with contempt: Donald Trump.
“You claim your subpoenas are inviolate when they are used against us yet were silent when the sitting President took the same position, as a former president, barely more than three years ago,” the letter states.
The problem here is that Comer and company do not care at all if they are called out for their hypocrisy and their double standards designed to protect Trump and all his minions. If Comer can do anything to hurt Clinton and distract from Trump’s involvement with Epstein, he’s going to do it.
In this case it’s contempt for thee, but not for me.
