--- title: House Panel Votes to Hold Clintons in Contempt in Epstein Probe description: The House Oversight Committee advanced resolutions to hold Bill and Hillary Clinton in contempt for refusing to testify in its probe. canonical: https://time.com/7355906/bill-clinton-hillary-epstein-investigation-contempt-house-oversight-committee/ author: Philip Wang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2026-01-21T22:25:14.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-11T00:49:19.554Z article:section: Politics og:title: House Panel Votes to Hold Clintons in Contempt in Epstein Probe og:description: The House Oversight Committee advanced resolutions to hold the couple in contempt for refusing to testify in its probe. og:url: https://time.com/7355906/bill-clinton-hillary-epstein-investigation-contempt-house-oversight-committee/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt44f52b924e147881/6998cd13c8dcb4d591b50cea/GettyImages-2257429386.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5191 og:image:height: 2920 og:image:alt: House Oversight Committee Votes On Holding Bill Clinton In Contempt Of Congress og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: House Panel Votes to Hold Clintons in Contempt in Epstein Probe twitter:description: The House Oversight Committee advanced resolutions to hold the couple in contempt for refusing to testify in its probe. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt44f52b924e147881/6998cd13c8dcb4d591b50cea/GettyImages-2257429386.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # House Committee Votes to Hold the Clintons in Contempt in Epstein Probe > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Philip Wang](https://time.com/author/philip-wang/)  ## Philip Wang Jan 21, 2026 10:25 PM UTC  House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer (R-KY) speaks during a hearing at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on January 21, 2026. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer (R-KY) speaks during a hearing at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on January 21, 2026. Win McNamee—Getty Images  by [Philip Wang](https://time.com/author/philip-wang/)  ## Philip Wang Jan 21, 2026 10:25 PM UTC The House Oversight Committee voted to recommend holding former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in contempt for [refusing to testify](https://time.com/7345940/bill-clinton-hillary-epstein-deposition-investigation-subpoena-house-contempt/) in the panel’s Jeffrey Epstein investigation. The committee on Wednesday advanced a pair of resolutions to hold the Clintons in contempt after they did not appear for depositions earlier this month. Nine Democrats voted with Republicans to advance the resolution to hold Bill Clinton in contempt, while three Democrats joined Republicans to support holding Hillary Clinton in contempt. The nine Democrats who voted in favor of the Bill Clinton resolution are Reps. Maxwell Frost of Florida, Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois, Summer Lee of Pennsylvania, Stephen Lynch and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, Emily Randall of Washington, Lateefah Simon of California, Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico, and Rashida Tlaib of Michican. Lee, Stansbury and Tlaib also voted for the Hillary Clinton resolution. **Read more:**[_Less Than 1% of the Epstein Files Have Been Released, DOJ Says_](https://time.com/7343702/epstein-files-release-doj/) A full House vote for contempt could have serious legal consequences for the Clintons, as the Department of Justice could decide to prosecute the couple. The Clintons could be subject to up to $100,000 fines and one year in jail if convicted. During the hearing, Lee, a progressive Democrat, also introduced an amendment to hold Attorney General Pam Bondi in contempt for not complying with the law that required the Department of Justice to release the full Epstein files by a Dec. 19 deadline. Comer disagreed during the hearing and said Bondi “is complying.” The amendment failed along party lines. In a statement following the votes, House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer said on X that “no one is above the law” and that the Clintons “must be held accountable.” “These bipartisan subpoenas for the Clintons were approved unanimously and issued more than five months ago as part of the Committee’s investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.” House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Garcia continued to criticize Republicans after the votes for failing to hold Bondi accountable, saying in [a post on X](https://x.com/RepRobertGarcia/status/2014047903036158138) that they are only interested in “pursuing political enemies and bending the knee to Trump than getting justice for survivors.” During the hearing, Comer also announced that disgraced socialite Ghislaine Maxwell is set to testify in Congress on Feb. 9, although she is also expected to plead the Fifth Amendment. “I hope she changes her mind, because I want to hear from her,” Comer said. Deputy Chief of Staff for former President Clinton Angel Ureña said in [a statement](https://x.com/angelurena/status/2013982202443292796) that the former president had offered to meet Comer and Garcia in New York for an on-the-record interview “at a mutually convenient date and time,” and that the scope of the interview would only be limited to the Epstein investigation. Comer rejected the offer of an interview on Tuesday, setting the stage for Wednesday’s vote. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/7355906/bill-clinton-hillary-epstein-investigation-contempt-house-oversight-committee/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/7355906/bill-clinton-hillary-epstein-investigation-contempt-house-oversight-committee/"},"headline":"House Committee Votes to Hold the Clintons in Contempt in Epstein Probe","datePublished":"2026-01-21T22:25:14.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-11T00:49:19.554Z","description":"The House Oversight Committee advanced resolutions to hold Bill and Hillary Clinton in contempt for refusing to testify in its probe.","url":"https://time.com/7355906/bill-clinton-hillary-epstein-investigation-contempt-house-oversight-committee/","keywords":["Congress","News Desk"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt44f52b924e147881/6998cd13c8dcb4d591b50cea/GettyImages-2257429386.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Philip Wang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/philip-wang/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt44f52b924e147881/6998cd13c8dcb4d591b50cea/GettyImages-2257429386.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"House Oversight Committee Votes On Holding Bill Clinton In Contempt Of Congress","caption":"Oversight Committee hearing Comer Garcia","creditText":"Win McNamee—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/congress/","name":"Congress"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/7355906/bill-clinton-hillary-epstein-investigation-contempt-house-oversight-committee/","name":"House Committee Votes to Hold the Clintons in Contempt in Epstein Probe"}}]}] ```