{"id":12066,"date":"2025-08-05T16:47:35","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T16:47:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/comer-issues-subpoenas-for-dojs-epstein-files-depositions-with-former-officials\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T16:47:35","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T16:47:35","slug":"comer-issues-subpoenas-for-dojs-epstein-files-depositions-with-former-officials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/comer-issues-subpoenas-for-dojs-epstein-files-depositions-with-former-officials\/","title":{"rendered":"Comer issues subpoenas for DOJ\u2019s Epstein files, depositions with former officials"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The House Oversight Committee on Tuesday issued subpoenas for Department of Justice records on the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, as well as for interviews with a slate of former government officials in connection to the case.<\/p>\n

Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) announced that he was summoning<\/a> nearly a dozen former officials to appear for depositions on the Epstein investigation \u2014 a list that includes former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.<\/p>\n

Former U.S. Attorneys General William Barr, Alberto Gonzales, Jeff Sessions, Loretta Lynch, Eric Holder and Merrick Garland, as well as former FBI Directors Robert Mueller and James Comey were also tapped to give testimony in connection to the case.<\/p>\n

Comer was required to send the subpoenas after a Democratic-led subcommittee vote<\/a> in July.<\/p>\n

The move is the latest in a broader battle over the Epstein files, which took the Trump administration by storm last month as anger boiled over from within MAGA circles about the administration\u2019s handling of the case.<\/p>\n

The committee\u2019s subpoena of Bill Clinton in particular seems more symbolic than substantive. No former president has ever testified to Congress under the compulsion of a subpoena \u2014 and lawmakers have tried only twice before: once in 1953, when the House Un-American Activities Committee subpoenaed Harry Truman, and once in 2022, when the Jan. 6 select committee subpoenaed Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

Neither president testified in those instances, and the Justice Department has long cited Truman\u2019s example \u2014 though not backed by any legal precedent \u2014 to suggest that it is improper for Congress to compel even former presidents to testify, given separation of powers concerns.<\/p>\n

While the president has tried to brush off the growing outcry \u2014 and lashed out at The Wall Street Journal<\/a> over its report of a letter he allegedly wrote to the disgraced financier for his birthday, which he denies authoring \u2014 Republicans have split over their approach to the issue.<\/p>\n

Trump has publicly raged about the case, suggesting it was a Democratic plant to undermine him. He\u2019s also sought to mollify his angry base, directing Attorney General Pam Bondi to seek the release of grand jury documents amid outrage from within his own MAGA sphere, although it is not clear if there would be anything revelatory in those documents<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche also met with Epstein co-conspirator<\/a> and convicted sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell last month amid the heightened public pressure.<\/p>\n

Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for child sex trafficking and other crimes, was moved to a minimum-security federal prison camp in Texas just days after her meetings with Blanche \u2014 a transfer that came as Trump has made clear<\/a> that a pardon for the convicted sex offender is within his purview.<\/p>\n

Kyle Cheney contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The House Oversight Committee on Tuesday issued subpoenas for Department of Justice records on the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, as well as for interviews with a slate of former government officials in connection to the case. Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) announced that he was summoning nearly a dozen former officials to appear for depositions on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12066\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}