The House Oversight Committee voted in support of holding former president Bill Clinton and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton in contempt of Congress on Wednesday after the couple refused to appear for closed-door transcribed depositions related to the committee’s ongoing investigation of deceased convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
A resolution holding Hillary Clinton in contempt passed largely along party lines, 28 to 15. Three Democrats voted with Republicans: Reps. Melanie Stansbury (R-New Mexico), Summer Lee (D-Pennsylvania) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan). The resolution holding Bill Clinton in contempt received more Democratic support, and passed 34 to 8.
The panel’s vote sets up a full House vote on whether to refer the contempt findings to the Justice Department for possible prosecution. Contempt of Congress is punishable by up to a year in prison.
House Republican leaders are not expected to give the matter a vote until lawmakers return in February after a week-long recess. Given the House’s slim Republican majority, it is likely that nearly every Republican would need to support the resolutions for them to succeed. It’s unclear whether all members of the GOP conference will do so, and whether any Democrats will join Republicans in backing the measures during the final floor vote.
The Clintons are among 10 individuals the House Oversight Committee subpoenaed for testimony as part of its months-long investigation of Epstein and his former partner Ghislaine Maxwell.
Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to two charges of soliciting prostitution, including one involving a minor. He was arrested on federal sex-trafficking charges in 2019 and died in federal custody later that year. His death was ruled a suicide. Judges and lawmakers say that over decades, he abused, trafficked and molested scores of girls, many of whom have come forward in court and in other public forums.
Maxwell was convicted on sex trafficking charges in 2021, after a federal court found she recruited girls on Epstein’s behalf, and facilitated sexual encounters between them and the financier. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison, was transferred to a minimum security prison in 2025. House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Kentucky) said on Wednesday that Maxwell will sit for a deposition on Feb. 9.
Neither Clinton has been accused of any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein, and both have said they have no knowledge of relevance to the committee’s investigation. A spokesman for the former president has previously said that he met Epstein several times and took four trips on his airplane but knew nothing about Epstein’s crimes. Bill Clinton has appeared in Epstein-related photographs released by Congress and the Justice Department.
A letter the Clintons’ attorneys sent to the committee on Tuesday said they tried to work with the Oversight Committee to schedule limited interviews with committee leaders and their staffs in New York, and were repeatedly rebuffed. The attorneys wrote that the failure to schedule the sessions “confirms that these subpoenas are not grounded in any legislative purpose; instead they are being weaponized for harassment and political gain.”
Comer said the committee rejected the offer because the Clintons wanted only him and Rep. Robert Garcia (California), the ranking Democrat on the panel, present (along with two aides, each) and prohibited any transcription.
“The Clintons’ latest demands make clear they believe their last name entitles them to special treatment,” Comer wrote in a statement. “The House Oversight Committee’s bipartisan subpoenas require the Clintons to appear for depositions that are under oath and transcribed. Former President Clinton has a documented history of parsing language to evade questions, responded falsely under oath, and was impeached and suspended from the practice of law as a result.”
Both Clintons were originally scheduled to speak with the committee in October 2025; those sessions were rescheduled for December. The appearances were moved a second time after the Clintons said they planned to attend a funeral, according to committee aides.
The Clintons told the committee they would not participate in the closed-door depositions rescheduled for Jan. 13- 14, arguing that the panel’s subpoenas were “legally invalid,” a claim repeated in the Tuesday letter from their attorneys. The couple also said that they should be excused from providing in-person testimony because they had provided sworn statements containing all the information they have about Epstein. Other former officials, including former attorneys general Jeff Sessions and Alberto Gonzalez, have submitted sworn statements in lieu of depositions.
“There is no plausible explanation for what you are doing other than partisan politics,” the Clintons wrote in a letter to the committee explaining their mid-January decision. “To say you can’t complete your work without speaking to us is simply bizarre.”
Contempt of Congress is rarely invoked, but it has been utilized more in recent years. Lawmakers found Stephen K. Bannon and Peter Navarro in contempt of Congress in 2021 for defying a subpoena issued by the special committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Both served four-month sentences.
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