(The Center Square) – A powerful House committee issued subpoenas for key government officials, including former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as part of a congressional investigation into well-connected financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., issued subpoenas Tuesday to the Clintons, former FBI Director James Comey, former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, former U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, former FBI Director Robert Mueller, former U.S. Attorney General William Barr, former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales as part of the House investigation on the “oversight of the federal government’s enforcement of sex trafficking laws” and the “handling of the investigation and prosecution” of Epstein and close confidant Ghislane Maxwell.
Comer noted examples of a potentially close relationship between the former president and Epstein in the letter to Bill Clinton.
“By your own admission, you flew on Jeffrey Epstein’s private plane four separate times in 2002 and 2003. During one of these trips, you were even pictured receiving a ‘massage’ from one of Mr. Epstein’s victims,” the congressman wrote. “It has also been claimed that you pressured Vanity Fair not to publish sextrafficking allegations against your ‘good friend’ Mr. Epstein, and there are conflicting reports about whether you ever visited Mr. Epstein’s island. You were also allegedly close to Ms. Ghislane Maxwell, an Epstein co-conspirator, and attended an intimate dinner with her in 2014, three years after public reports about her involvement in Mr. Epstein’s abuse of minors.”
Comer’s letter to Hillary Clinton indicated that the former president’s trips on Epstein’s plane were part of the Clinton Family Foundation trips. He also included a connection between the former first couple and Maxwell, noting that Maxwell’s nephew was employed by Hillary’s 2008 failed presidential campaign and then hired by the State Department after becoming Secretary of State.
Comer says the purpose of the investigation is to “inform legislative solutions to improve federal efforts to combat sex trafficking and reform the use of non-prosecution agreements and/or plea agreements in sex-crime investigations.”
The subpoenas come ahead of Comer’s scheduled testimony with Maxwell, which was initially scheduled for Aug. 11, but has been postponed until after an appeal from Maxwell to the Supreme Court has been decided.
The House’s investigation comes as the Trump administration and Department of Justice face mounting pressure to fulfill promises to declassify the Epstein files, including his rumored client list and the circumstances surrounding his 2019 death.
House deposition and record return dates:
Department of Justice Records: Aug. 19Former U.S. Attorney General William Barr: Aug. 18Former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales: Aug. 26Former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions: Aug. 28Former FBI Director Robert Mueller: Sept. 2Former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch: Sept. 9Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder: Sept. 30Former U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland: Oct. 2Former FBI Director James Comey: Oct. 7Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: Oct. 9Former President Bill Clinton: Oct. 14
