On Tuesday, House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., issued subpoenas to the Department of Justice, former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and several top former Justice Department officials for documents and testimony in the probe of convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Epstein was found dead by suicdie in his jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial.
The Committee announced Tuesday that it had sent the subpoenas to the Clintons, former Attorneys General Loretta Lynch, Eric Holder, Bill Barr, Merrick Garland, Jeff Sessions and Alberto Gonzales, and former FBI Directors James Comey and Robert Mueller “for testimony related to horrific crimes perpetrated by Jeffrey Epstein.” It also sent a subpoena to Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, but agreed last week to delay deposing her until after the Supreme Court considers her petition to overturn her conviction for sex trafficking. Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence for her role in helping Epstein sexually abuse teenage girls.
In a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, Comer directed the Justice Department to deliver the documents on the Epstein subpoena by Aug. 19: “While the Department undertakes efforts to uncover and publicly disclose additional information related to Mr. Epstein and Ms. Maxwell’s cases, it is imperative that Congress conduct oversight of the federal government’s enforcement of sex trafficking laws generally and specifically its handling of the investigation and prosecution of Mr. Epstein and Ms. Maxwell. The Committee may use the results of this investigation 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 cover letter Comer sent to former President Clinton called for him to sit for a deposition on Oct. 14 to answer questions about his relationship with Epstein: “By your own admission, you flew on Jeffrey Epstein’s private plane four separate times in 2002 and 2003. 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.”
A subcommittee had voted to subpoena the Justice Department last month for the “full, complete, and unredacted Epstein Files,” as well as subpoena 10 former officials in a motion led by Democrats, with three Republicans joining. The DOJ announced last month after reviewing Epstein’s case that no other people were expected to be charged and no further information about the case would be released.
Also on Tuesday, attorneys for Ghislaine Maxwell submitted a filing urging the judge not to unseal the transcripts, citing her pending appeal of her conviction to the U.S. Supreme Court. The filing read in part: “Jeffrey Epstein is dead. Ghislaine Maxwell is not nWhatever interest the public may have in Epstein, that interest cannot justify a broad intrusion into grand jury secrecy in a case where the defendant is alive, her legal options are viable, and her due process rights remain.”
Editorial credit: Aashish Kiphayet / Shutterstock.com
