The bipartisan effort to threaten Mr. Clinton and his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, with criminal contempt reflected an undeniable lack of loyalty to them in the Democratic Party.
These Epstein photos feature Trump, Clinton and other VIPs
House Democrats have released dozens of photos from Jeffrey Epstein’s estate showing Bill Clinton, Woody Allen and other alleged sex traffickers.
WASHINGTON – After a successful pressure campaign to force former President Bill Clinton to testify about sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, House Democrats are threatening to subpoena President Donald Trump for their own investigation if they take back power.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s bipartisan effort to explore possible contempt charges against Mr. Clinton and his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, for defying subpoenas was noteworthy for a number of reasons. First, it shows that both men lack unquestionable loyalty to the party they once ran more than two decades ago, and it has forced an internal evaluation within the Democratic Party.
But it also gave a political gift to a party that currently has no control over its influence in Washington. The new precedent set by Clinton’s deposition means the threat of a criminal contempt investigation will hang over Trump after he leaves the White House and when Democrats regain the House majority after future elections.
Although current and former presidents have testified before Congress, such events are rare. Democrats now claim they have permission to subpoena the former president for criminal contempt, but President Trump did not face that vote in absentia during the investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Democrats say they expect the same pressure on Trump as on Clinton.
Democrats, including California Rep. Robert Garcia and New York Rep. Dan Goldman, have vowed to investigate Mr. Trump’s political damage, including tougher immigration policies and his ties to Mr. Epstein. President Trump has said his immigration enforcement is vital to the country and that he had no knowledge of Epstein’s wrongdoing.
Goldman, who served on the House staff during Trump’s first impeachment in 2019 and 2020, took to social media on February 3 to thank the committee chairman, Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), for “setting a clear precedent for compliance with Congressional subpoenas.”
“We look forward to leveraging the same precedent as we regain our majority in November,” Goldman said.
The Justice Department has long had a policy of not prosecuting sitting presidents, which is why prosecutors dropped two federal charges against Trump after he won the 2024 election. But the threat of a criminal investigation will remain even after he leaves office.
Garcia, the top Democrat on the committee that subpoenaed the Clintons, said it was the “right decision” to recognize that lawmakers could threaten to insult the former president for refusing to testify. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) warned that the decision would have implications for the Republican Party..
“That’s their choice. They decided to increase the power of Congress in this regard,” Ocasio-Cortez told USA TODAY. “I understand that that’s what they want to do. And if they expand the power of Congress for themselves, they expand it for everyone. And that’s their choice.”
Democrats also worked with Republicans to pressure the Clintons to testify.
On January 21, Republican-led House committees voted on two resolutions to hold the Democratic Clintons in criminal contempt for subpoenas seeking information about Epstein. Nine Democrats joined Republicans in voting against Bill Clinton, and two voted present. Three Democrats joined Republicans in voting against Hillary Clinton.
Faced with the possibility of a House vote on criminal contempt charges, the Clintons refused and agreed to testify in late February.
The Clintons argued that the subpoena was politically motivated because the committee also did not seek testimony from President Trump. Comer said the goal is to uncover the truth about Epstein’s story, uncover how the government betrayed those who accused him of abuse, and uncover how Epstein amassed his wealth.
“This is not about supporting President Trump. This is not about protecting President Trump,” Comer told reporters on February 4.
Ocasio-Cortez said her colleagues’ vote to force the Clintons to testify was not a political rebuke to them. Rather, it was important to cooperate with Congress and respect its authority.
“This is not a question of when Republicans or Democrats will issue subpoenas,” she said. “The question is when does Congress exercise its legal authority and how much power does it want to assert in that authority? To me, that’s more of an institutional issue than a political one.”
The failure of Democrats to defend the Clintons in recent months, even as they face contempt charges that could carry prison terms, underscores the Clintons’ waning political relevance. President Bill Clinton served two terms from 1993 to 2001, and his wife later served in the U.S. Senate, served in Obama’s cabinet, and even served as the Democratic presidential candidate in 2016, when he lost to Trump.
Even Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Hillary Clinton’s running mate in the 2016 campaign, did not express dissatisfaction with his House colleagues targeting the Clintons.
“I have a big enough job here,” Cain told USA TODAY. “I have no involvement whatsoever in what the House does. They’re going to do what they’re going to do, and I don’t get stressed about it.”
The president has testified before, but has never been pressured to do so.
The president has voluntarily testified before Congress, but the subpoenas have ratcheted up the pressure and reflect the reluctance of witnesses to come forward.
President George Washington testified before the full Senate in 1789 about treaties with Native Americans. President Abraham Lincoln testified before the House Judiciary Committee in 1862 about a newspaper that published one of his speeches before it was published. President Woodrow Wilson meets with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at the White House regarding a peace treaty with Germany after World War I. And President Gerald Ford appeared before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Capitol Hill regarding the pardon of Richard Nixon.
Former presidents who have testified before Congress include Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Harry Truman, and Ford.
The Democratic-led House committee that investigated the January 6 riot had previously subpoenaed President Trump in October 2022 as a “person at the center” of the riot. But Trump challenged the subpoena in court, and the committee was disbanded when Republicans regained the House majority in the November election.
Committee leaders Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Mississippi) and Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said in a joint statement in November 2022 that President Trump “rejects what over 1,000 other witnesses have done.”
When it comes to the current Epstein investigation, President Trump is still battling Congressional oversight. He told reporters in the Oval Office on February 3 that the investigation should be closed.
“I think it’s time for this country to do something else,” Trump said. “In hindsight, literally nothing has been revealed about me other than a conspiracy against me by Epstein and others.”
