Hmmmm: Clintons Vow to Stonewall Congress on Epstein Files

Say … how did that discharge petition work out for Democrats, anyway?

A few weeks ago, Democrats demanded full exposure of the investigative and grand-jury files related to the prosecution of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. They forced a bill onto the House floor via that normally arcane procedure, while painting Republicans as obstructionists in protection of a president. As it turns out, though, one president eventually endorsed transparency. 

And another now has not, according to the New York Times:

Bill and Hillary Clinton refused on Tuesday to testify in the House’s Jeffrey Epstein investigation, escalating a monthslong battle with Representative James R. Comer, Republican of Kentucky, and effectively daring him to follow through on his threats to hold them in contempt of Congress.

“Every person has to decide when they have seen or had enough and are ready to fight for this country, its principles and its people, no matter the consequences,” the Clintons wrote in a lengthy letter to Mr. Comer, which was obtained by The New York Times. “For us, now is that time.”

Mr. Comer’s relentless efforts to force them to testify reflect his overall approach to his panel’s Epstein inquiry. As the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Mr. Comer has sought to shift the focus from President Trump’s ties to the convicted sex offender and his administration’s decision to close its investigation into the matter without releasing key information. Instead, he has sought to shift the spotlight onto prominent Democrats who once associated with Mr. Epstein and his longtime companion Ghislaine Maxwell.

Mr. Comer has repeatedly threatened to hold the Clintons in contempt if they failed to appear for live depositions behind closed doors, typically a first step in referring someone to the Justice Department for prosecution. He had set a deadline of Tuesday for Mr. Clinton to appear, and Wednesday for Mrs. Clinton.

First off, let’s recall that Merrick Garland imprisoned Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro for refusing to respond to House committee subpoenas. The Democrat-led House at the time passed a contempt referral, and the Department of Justice prosecuted and convicted both. Donald Trump eventually pardoned them, but that precedent has now been set. And Comer plans to follow it, NBC News reports:

The Republican-led House Oversight Committee announced Tuesday that it will seek to hold former President Bill Clinton in contempt of Congress after he failed to appear for a deposition as part of the panel’s probe into the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

“As a result of Bill Clinton not showing up for his lawful subpoena, which again was voted unanimously by the committee in a bipartisan manner, we will move next week in the House Oversight Committee markup to hold former President Clinton in contempt of Congress,” Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., told reporters Tuesday morning on Capitol Hill. …

In December, Comer said he would postpone the depositions for a second time because the Clintons needed to attend a funeral, but he said the Clintons’ lawyer, David Kendall, was “unwilling to provide any alternative dates” for their testimony, so he was setting the depositions for mid-January.

On what basis do the Clintons believe that they can ignore a House subpoena? On the “I don’t want to walk into another perjury trap” basis, it appears:

[T]he Clintons accused Mr. Comer of potentially bringing Congress to a halt to pursue a politically driven process “literally designed to result in our imprisonment.”

“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 you think are your friends,” they wrote.

That may not be an entirely unfair characterization. However, Democrats pushed the discharge petition for the same reason – to trap Trump in the scandal. Thus far, however, only Bill Clinton has been seen in Epstein’s hot tub with an unidentified female in photos from the file. That’s not evidence of a crime per se, but it’s impolitic enough to reopen a lot of speculation as to Clinton’s interactions with Epstein and Maxwell, as well as reopening the decades-long debate over his character.

Now Democrats will have to rally around the Clintons’ decision to stonewall the Epstein investigation that they spent months demanding, while explaining why someone whose pictures in the files suggest a much deeper level of engagement with Epstein than anything found about Trump so far in these files. They will have to also explain why defiance of congressional subpoenas were a crime in the Biden administration when aimed at officials in a Republican administration, but somehow invalid when applied to Democrat officials. The “it’s (D)ifferent” argument may work with the media, but it’s not going to hold up in the environment Democrats created around the Epstein files over the last several months. 

Essentially, however, the Epstein files have become the monkey’s paw for those who wield them for political purposes. You get your wish, only to discover that your wish gets you. 

Also, today’s episode of The Ed Morrissey Show podcast is now up! Today’s show features:

•  The world is watching as the people of Iran stand up against their oppressors. Where are the US media, however? 
• Andrew Malcolm and I dig into the silence that stretched nearly two weeks on what may be a world-changing event. 
• Why is the Left so uninvested in Iranian liberty? And what exactly are they invested in? 

The Ed Morrissey Show is now a fully downloadable and streamable show at  Spotify, Apple Podcasts, the TEMS Podcast YouTube channel, and on Rumble and our own in-house portal at the #TEMS page!

Editor’s Note: The mainstream media isn’t interested in the facts; they’re only interested in attacking the president. Help us continue to get to the bottom of stories like the Jeffrey Epstein files by supporting our truth-seeking journalism today. 

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