WASHINGTON — Former President Bill Clinton and former First Lady and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton should testify before a congressional committee about their links with Jeffrey Epstein, a senior Democratic senator told Raw Story.
“People get subpoenaed, they should show up,” Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) told Raw Story at the Capitol Wednesday.
The Clintons have rejected Republican attempts to force them to testify about links to Epstein, the late financier and sex offender, setting up a clash with Rep. James Comer (R-KY), chair of the powerful House Oversight Committee.
Earlier this week, lawyers for the Clintons released a lengthy letter rejecting the legal premise of Comer’s subpoena.
In their own blistering letter to Comer, the Clintons pointed out that the Department of Justice had not fully complied with a law mandating that it release all files related to investigations of Epstein.
“Comer should subpoena [the] DOJ,” Luján said, laughing.
Under Attorney General Pam Bondi, a close ally of President Donald Trump, the DOJ is widely seen to be dragging its feet on the Epstein matter.
Trump’s once-close friendship with Epstein, a convicted sex trafficker who killed himself in prison in New York in 2019, is an enduring subject of fascination, reporting, gossip, and festering scandal.
“Look,” Luján said. “What Comer does, if he's gonna subpoena people, he should subpoena everyone that needs to be subpoenaed, and pull them in.
“And if he wants to make this look political, Comer is doing a pretty good job of that.
“But anyone involved in all of this Epstein bulls—, they should come in and they should fess up and the truth should be shared with the American people, right? No matter who they are, because everybody, because this was so bipartisan, everybody should do it. I mean, that's how I would describe it.”
The Epstein affair has indeed ensnared a number of prominent public figures. Bill Clinton has prominently featured in DOJ releases since Congress passed a law mandating such transparency. Trump’s name has also been shown to be in such Epstein files.
Trump has named the Clintons among liberal figures he says should be investigated in relation to Epstein.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, after theatrically displaying an empty chair during a supposed deposition of Bill Clinton, Comer said: “Jeffrey Epstein visited the White House 17 times while Bill Clinton was president.
“No one’s accusing Bill Clinton of anything, any wrongdoing. We just have questions.”
Comer also said he would charge the Clintons with contempt of Congress.
Speaking to the right-wing Real America’s Voice TV network, Comer said: "We expect the Clintons to come in, or I expect the Clintons to be met with the same fate that [Steve] Bannon and [Peter] Navarro were met with when the Democrats were in control.”
Bannon and Navarro, close Trump aides and advisers, both served prison time after refusing to answer subpoenas for testimony as part of investigations of the deadly January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump’s supporters.
Democrats rejected Comer’s threats as political posturing.
On Wednesday, Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA), a target of Trump’s demands that his political enemies be prosecuted, told Raw Story Comer was not the only Republican in Congress working to Trump’s benefit in matters relating to Epstein.
“I think this is a political exercise by Jim Jordan,” Schiff said, referring to the Ohio Republican who chairs the House Judiciary Committee.
“I think they will lose in court if it's litigated. But I think this is designed to deflect attention from the president's withholding of all the Epstein files.”
