U.S. Rep. Summer Lee, D-Swissvale, voted Wednesday to hold former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in contempt of Congress for defying subpoenas to testify before the House Oversight Committee as part of its Jeffrey Epstein investigation.
Lee was one of nine Democrats on the Oversight Committee to vote in favor of holding Bill Clinton in contempt of Congress and one of three to vote to hold Hillary Clinton in contempt.
The Clintons, both Democrats, had been negotiating with committee leaders to come up with alternatives to testifying before the committee, including an offer this week to have committee leaders and staff interview Bill Clinton in New York, The Associated Press reported. Oversight Chairman James Comer, a Republican from Tennessee, rejected the offer.
The resolutions now head to the full House.
“Rep. Lee has consistently advocated to hear from anyone with information on Epstein’s crimes, regardless of party,” Lee’s office said in a statement.
Separately, the Oversight Committee voted against a proposed amendment from Lee to also hold Attorney General Pam Bondi in contempt for defying a committee subpoena to release all of the Justice Department’s Epstein files.
Before a vote on her proposed amendment, Lee, the top-ranked Democrat on the Oversight Committee’s Subcommittee on Federal Law Enforcement, said, “We are one week out from when Bill and Hillary Clinton did not show for their depositions. One week and we’re already having a markup to hold them in contempt.”
“Meanwhile,” Lee continued, “the Department of Justice has been legally obligated to hand over the full, unredacted Epstein files to this committee since August — the same exact subpoena that they are using to hold the Clintons in contempt.”
Lee said the Justice Department has turned over 1 percent of its Epstein-related files to the committee since August.
“We are five months overdue, Mr. Comer,” Lee said. “You have made no effort to bring in Pam Bondi. So no, the difference is not clear. You have made no effort to demand any answers, to exert any type of pressure.”
