TLDR
House Oversight Chairman James Comer issued subpoenas to DOJ, the Clintons, and eight former officials on August 5, 2025. When the Clintons defied the subpoenas for six months, the committee voted bipartisan contempt on January 21, 2026. The resulting depositions produced the first compelled testimony of a former president, and DOJ separately produced approximately 33,000 pages directly to the committee (PAPER TRAIL Project, 2026).
The Subpoena Campaign
On August 5, 2025, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer launched the most aggressive congressional investigation into the Epstein matter since the original prosecutions. He issued subpoenas simultaneously to the Department of Justice and to Bill and Hillary Clinton, along with eight former government officials (PAPER TRAIL Project, 2026).
The subpoenaed officials covered four administrations:
- William Barr (Attorney General, Trump administration)
- James Comey (FBI Director, Obama/Trump administrations)
- Alberto Gonzales (Attorney General, Bush administration)
- Eric Holder (Attorney General, Obama administration)
- Loretta Lynch (Attorney General, Obama administration)
- Jeff Sessions (Attorney General, Trump administration)
- Merrick Garland (Attorney General, Biden administration)
- Robert Mueller (FBI Director, Bush/Obama administrations)
Mueller's subpoena was eventually withdrawn due to health issues. The remaining seven provided testimony through a mix of depositions and written declarations under penalty of false statements.
Six Months of Defiance
The Clintons did not comply. For six months — from August 5, 2025 through early February 2026 — they defied the Oversight Committee's subpoenas. On January 21, 2026, the committee voted on a bipartisan basis to hold both Bill and Hillary Clinton in contempt of Congress (PAPER TRAIL Project, 2026).
The bipartisan character of the contempt vote matters. Epstein-related congressional actions had consistently crossed party lines — the Epstein Files Transparency Act passed 427-1 (Epstein Files Transparency Act, Pub. L. No. 119-38, 2025), and now contempt proceedings attracted support from both sides. On February 3, 2026, facing the prospect of a full House contempt vote, the Clintons agreed to testify.
Hillary Clinton was deposed on February 26, 2026, behind closed doors for approximately six hours. She denied ever meeting Epstein, flying on his aircraft, or visiting his properties. She described knowing Ghislaine Maxwell "casually as an acquaintance" who attended Chelsea Clinton's 2010 wedding as a plus-one. Committee members reportedly asked about topics ranging from financial connections to UFOs and Pizzagate (PAPER TRAIL Project, 2026).
Bill Clinton was deposed the next day, February 27, in New York City. His testimony lasted over six hours. He acknowledged first meeting Epstein in 2002, traveling on his aircraft with 16 or more documented flight log entries between 2002 and 2003, and stated: "I saw nothing, and I did nothing wrong." He was the first former president compelled to testify under subpoena in American history.
The 33,000 Pages
Separate from the public DOJ release of 3.5 million pages, DOJ produced approximately 33,000 pages directly to the Oversight Committee. These pages were provided under subpoena and are distinct from the material available through the DOJ Epstein Library portal (PAPER TRAIL Project, 2026).
Our corpus audit confirmed that DOJ-OGR-prefixed identifiers in the database number 33,655 — closely matching the reported 33,000 figure and suggesting these committee-directed pages are already in the corpus as source_id=15 documents (PAPER TRAIL Project, 2026).
Comer also subpoenaed unspecified banks for Epstein financial records in August 2025, and in November 2025 issued subpoenas to JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank specifically, along with a letter to the USVI Attorney General regarding Epstein's Virgin Islands entities. These bank subpoenas represent a parallel track to Raskin's bank letters and Wyden's Treasury investigation, with all three congressional efforts converging on the same financial networks from different angles (PAPER TRAIL Project, 2026).
The Depositions as Evidence
The Barr deposition transcript was released publicly. Comey, Gonzales, Holder, Lynch, Sessions, and Garland provided written declarations — a lesser form of testimony that avoids the follow-up questioning available in live depositions.
The substantive yield of these depositions remains partially opaque because the Clinton sessions were held behind closed doors. What is publicly known comes from participant statements and press reports. The committee has not released transcripts.
What is clear is the procedural precedent: Congress demonstrated that it could compel testimony from former presidents and attorneys general on Epstein-related matters, using bipartisan contempt as the enforcement mechanism. Whether the testimony produced actionable evidence or political theater depends on content that has not been fully disclosed.
Bipartisan Demand
The most recent bipartisan action from the Oversight Committee came after NPR reported on February 24, 2026 that DOJ had withheld or removed files containing accusations against President Trump (Ainsley, 2026). Both Comer and the committee's ranking Democrat, Rep. Garcia, demanded an explanation — demonstrating that bipartisan oversight extends even to politically inconvenient revelations.
This bipartisan demand pattern — visible in the transparency vote, the contempt vote, and the response to file withholding — represents the one consistent thread in the congressional Epstein response: when the issue is framed as institutional accountability rather than partisan targeting, both parties participate.
References
Epstein Files Transparency Act, Pub. L. No. 119-38 (2025).
PAPER TRAIL Project. (2026). Congressional actions, February 2026 [Data set].
PAPER TRAIL Project. (2026). Corpus audit: Inventory [Script 27].
PAPER TRAIL Project. (2026). External government sources [Data set].
Ainsley, J. (2026, February 24). DOJ withheld Epstein files referencing Trump. NPR. https://npr.org/2026/02/24/nx-s1-5723968