Former US President Bill Clinton and his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, on Tuesday announced that they would not comply with subpoenas issued by the US House of Representatives Oversight Committee.
Bill Clinton failed to appear for questioning on Tuesday and Hillary Clinton has said she will not appear on Wednesday.
In a letter addressed to Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, the Clintons wrote: "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. For us, now is that time."
The Clintons slammed the GOP-led probe as "legally invalid," while Comer warned he would begin contempt proceedings against them next week.
The Clintons rejected the premise of the subpoena, accusing Comer and Republicans of being eager to initiate a process "literally designed to result in our imprisonment."
The Democratic couple promised to "forcefully defend ourselves" and pointed to the hypocrisy of Comer allowing other witnesses in the Epstein case to submit written answers to questions rather than publicly parading them before cameras for a show.
"There is no plausible explanation for what you are doing other than partisan politics," they said.
"No one's accusing the Clintons of any wrongdoing," said Comer on Tuesday. "We just have questions."
Comer claimed that "most Americans" want Bill Clinton to answer questions about his ties to Epstein.
Clinton has never been accused of wrongdoing, and Comer was careful to avoid making such claims, adding only that "anyone would admit they spent a lot of time together."
Clinton and Epstein were friends throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, and the two flew on Epstein's private plane dozens of times.
Epstein was arrested in 2019 on federal sex trafficking and conspiracy charges. He killed himself in a New York jail cell while awaiting trial during Donald Trump's first term in office.
Perennial targets for Republicans since the 1990s, the Clintons have faced decades of attacks and insinuation, with Bill Clinton being impeached while in office for lying about an extramarital affair with a White House intern.
In a separate letter sent to the Oversight Committee on Monday, the Clintons' legal team said the new subpoenas were, "nothing more than a ploy to attempt to embarrass political rivals, as President Trump has directed."
After years of hyping a vast left-wing sex trafficking conspiracy involving the Clintons and other Democratic politicians and donors, Republicans have been slow to release FBI files on Epstein, despite being legally compelled to do so — sparking public outrage and even anger within Trump's MAGA movement.
One of his most notorious relationships was with Donald Trump, who fell out with his "best friend" after the sex-trafficker began poaching young girls working the spa at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
Questions about his long friendship with Epstein have dogged President Trump since his return to the White House in January.
Trump has denied any involvement in or knowledge of the sex-trafficking activities.
Comer has indicated that the Oversight Committee will not attempt to compel testimony from Trump about Epstein, saying that the Committee cannot force a sitting president to testify.
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