House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Bill and Hillary Clinton are “working in good faith” to comply with Oversight Committee subpoenas related to Jeffrey Epstein, a day after the panel voted to recommend holding them in contempt over their refusal to appear for testimony.
The top Democratic leader said the former president and the former secretary of State “are working in good faith to try to reach an accommodation with the Oversight Committee in order to sit down and offer their testimony.”
He said the contempt effort led by Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) “lacks any credibility” in part because “it has always been congressional practice that if someone is under a subpoena, you work to find reasonable accommodation in order to receive their testimony.”
Nine Oversight Democrats voted with Republicans Wednesday to recommend holding Bill Clinton in contempt, while three Democrats voted to recommend holding Hillary Clinton in contempt, both as part of the panel’s investigation into the late convicted sex offender.
A spokesperson for the House Oversight Committee said the Clintons’ attorneys had not been in touch since the contempt vote.
Prior to Wednesday’s vote, Jeffries urged opposition to a contempt recommendation.
Asked if he was advising members not to support the contempt measure on the floor, Jeffries cited the opposition of Reps. Robert Garcia of California and Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrats respectively on the Oversight and Judiciary committees. He said his own position “remains unchanged.”
“When it gets to the floor, if we need to have a broader caucus, wide conversation about it, we will,” he added.
