ISTANBUL

A Republican lawmaker in the US said Tuesday he would seek to initiate contempt-of-Congress proceedings against former President Bill Clinton after Clinton failed to appear to testify before a House committee investigating the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer told reporters that he plans to begin proceedings against Clinton next week and could take similar action against his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, if she fails to answer questions on Wednesday.

The committee subpoenaed the Clintons to testify about Epstein.

Clinton’s lawyers called the subpoenas “unenforceable” and said the couple had already provided “limited information” available about Epstein.

The former president has never been accused of wrongdoing by Epstein’s survivors and has denied knowledge of Epstein’s sexual offenses.

Comer said the subpoenas were approved in a bipartisan manner.

"We communicated with President Clinton's legal team for months now, giving them opportunity after opportunity to come in, to give us a day, and they continue to delay, delay, delay, to the point where we had no idea whether they're going to show up today or not," he said.

The Clintons dismissed the subpoenas as "nothing more than a ploy to attempt to embarrass political rivals, as President Trump has directed."

In a letter to Comer, Clinton’s lawyers said the couple engaged "proactively and voluntarily" with the committee and described the subpoenas as "untethered to a valid legislative purpose, unwarranted because they do not seek pertinent information, and an unprecedented infringement on the separation of powers."

Recently released photographs from the US Justice Department, mandated by Congress, show the former president with Epstein at the financier’s estate. One depicts him swimming in a pool, while another shows him lying on his back with his hands behind his head in what appears to be a hot tub.

Clinton was photographed with Epstein multiple times during the 1990s and early 2000s, before Epstein was arrested on sex-trafficking charges.

Clinton’s spokesman Angel Urena said the photos were decades old and that Clinton ended his association with Epstein before his crimes became known.

A spokesperson has previously confirmed that Clinton took four trips on Epstein’s private plane in 2002 and 2003, met Epstein in New York in 2002, and visited Epstein’s New York apartment around the same time.

Media reports citing flight logs have said Clinton flew on Epstein’s jet more than two dozen times, sometimes without his Secret Service detail.

Congress can detain an individual until they comply with a subpoena, refer a contempt citation to the Justice Department for prosecution, or seek a court order to compel compliance.

"If the court finds that the party is legally obligated to comply, continued non-compliance may result in the party being held in contempt of court," according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. "Where the target of the subpoena is an executive branch official, civil enforcement may be the only practical means by which Congress can effectively ensure compliance with its own subpoena."

Criminal contempt of Congress is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $100,000 and up to one year in prison.

Over the past year, lawmakers from both parties have sought to investigate Epstein’s ties to powerful individuals and passed a law requiring the Justice Department to release all federal investigative files by mid-December 2025.

After only a portion of the files were released, the legislation’s sponsors, Republican Thomas Massie and Democrat Ro Khanna, went to court last week seeking a federal judge to appoint a special master to ensure full compliance.