Contempt of Congress

Last week, the House Oversight Committee voted to hold Bill Clinton (and Hillary) in Contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with a congressional subpoena to testify before a committee on the Epstein Files.

While this hasn’t moved to a full House vote, and I think it may have been premature, I am inclined to agree with Congress – why should they get to decide the terms of their testimony? If the subpoena was illegal, as the Clintons claim, then file suit and let the courts decide.

I invite civil, bipartisan discussion on this post.

In addition to legislating, oversight of the Executive Branch is one of the key functions of the United States Congress. This week, Attorney General Pam Bondi appeared before a House oversight committee to discuss the Department of Justice’s handling of the exact same topic: the Epstein files.

To give a very brief, unnecessary recap, Jeffrey Epstein was arrested on sex-trafficking charges, and died in prison, reportedly by suicide. When asked on the campaign trail if he would release the files, President Trump said, “Yeah, yeah I would.” and ultimately signed a bill requiring the Department of Justice, led by Bondi, to release all the Epstein files after Democrats had secured enough discharge petition votes to force his hand.

According to the bill which President Trump signed, all the Epstein files were to be released by December 19^th. The ‘final’ trove of files was released on January 30^th but it seems some 3 million documents were not released, and there were copious redactions, seemingly of perpetrators, and victims being easily identifiable.

As with Bondi’s first oversight committee testimony in October, this hearing was contentious.

Bondi immediately attacked Rep. Jayapal – claiming her actions were theatrics and refusing to ‘get in the gutter‘ with her.
She attacked Rep. Raskin by calling him a ‘washed up lawyer. Not even a lawyer‘
Replied to Rep. Lofgren mentioning the DOJ not working with local law enforcement on immigration by stating, “I find it interesting that she keeps going after Donald Trump, the greatest President in American history.”
She called Rep. Balint, a Jewish American, anti-semitic.

I will note that I have often found many of these types of hearings to be largely theatrical. Congress members try to ask leading questions and then present their evidence to the contrary and read it into the record.

This was different.

This was a sitting Attorney General who came with the intention of derailing the entire purpose of the hearing, refusing to answer any questions, and ready to attack.

Pam Bondi brought a ‘burn book‘ so she could attack each Representative who asked her questions and even went to the length of spying on what Congress members searches were when they consulted the Epstein files.

The Oversight Committee chose to bring former President Clinton up for a vote on Contempt of Congress.

What exactly would you call this!?

On a related tangent:
I would also like to take a second to talk about the impeachment of President Clinton. I have heard it said a million times that he was impeached due simply to having an affair (yes, in different terms). Technically, he was impeached for lying to Congress and obstruction of justice. I feel like any of those three things dramatically understates the severity of what happened. The sitting President of the United States had an affair with one of his interns.

This is a person in the position of highest power in the country having an affair with someone whose future he had great control over. No one should minimize the significance of his actions and if he ultimately was involved with Jeffrey Epstein, that should also come to light and he should absolutely not be excused from testifying to Congress.

Sources:

House committee votes to hold Clintons in contempt of Congress in Epstein probe | PBS News

House Oversight moves forward on contempt against both Clintons after Hillary Clinton is a no-show in Epstein probe | CNN Politics

Clintons, former FBI directors subpoenaed in House Epstein investigation | Fox News

Clintons: Congressional subpoenas in Epstein case ‘invalid and legally unenforceable’

Congressional Oversight Manual | Congress.gov | Library of Congress

Attorney General Pam Bondi Testifies Before House Judiciary Committee, Part 1 | Video | C-SPAN.org

Attorney General Pam Bondi Testifies Before House Judiciary Committee, Part 2 | Video | C-SPAN.org

Epstein files – Wikipedia

Financier Jeffrey Epstein due in court over sex charges | AP News

Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide: New details revealed – ABC News

What Trump has said about Jeffrey Epstein over the years, including on 2024 campaign trail – ABC News