WASHINGTON, D.C.: Even as Republican lawmakers prepare contempt of Congress proceedings against them, Bill and Hillary Clinton said this week they would not comply with a congressional subpoena to testify in a House committee's investigation of Jeffrey Epstein.

Calling the House Oversight probe "legally invalid" in a letter released on social media, the Clintons wrote that the chair of the House Oversight Committee, Republican Rep. James Comer, is on the cusp of a process "literally designed to result in our imprisonment."

While accusing Comer of allowing other former officials to provide written statements about Epstein to the committee, while selectively enforcing subpoenas against them, the former President and the former Secretary of State said, "We will forcefully defend ourselves."

The intensifying clash raises new questions about the limits of congressional power to compel testimony. It also comes when Republicans are grappling with the Justice Department's delayed release of the Epstein files after a bipartisan push for their release.

Comer said he would start contempt-of-Congress proceedings next week, a rare and politically sensitive step that could eventually lead to a Justice Department prosecution.

He said no one is accusing the Clintons of wrongdoing, but that lawmakers have questions. Comer made the comments after Bill Clinton, who was once friends with Epstein, did not appear for a scheduled deposition at the House offices. "Anyone would admit they spent a lot of time together," he said.

Clinton has never been accused of wrongdoing related to Epstein, but the two had a well-known friendship in the 1990s and early 2000s. Republicans have focused on that relationship as they push for more details about Epstein's crimes. In a letter, the Clintons said they had shared all the limited information they had because Epstein's crimes were horrific.

Epstein was arrested in 2019 on federal sex trafficking and conspiracy charges and later died by suicide in a New York jail while awaiting trial.

Former presidents have voluntarily testified before Congress, but none has been forced to do so. Donald Trump cited that history in 2022, when he faced a subpoena from the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot. His lawyers argued that legal precedent protected a former president from being compelled to testify, and the committee later withdrew the subpoena.

Comer also said the Oversight Committee would not try to force Trump to testify about Epstein, noting that a sitting president cannot be compelled to appear. Trump, who was also friends with Epstein, has said he ended that relationship before Epstein was accused of sexual abuse.

Comer described the subpoenas for the Clintons as bipartisan, but when a subcommittee launched the Epstein investigation in August, it approved the subpoenas without allowing individual Democratic votes.

The Justice Department has also not fully complied with the committee's subpoena for its Epstein files.

Separately, lawmakers who sponsored legislation requiring the public release of records from the Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell investigations asked a New York judge to appoint an independent expert to oversee the release.

In a letter dated January 8 and delivered on the night of January 12, Reps. Ro Khanna, a Democrat from California, and Thomas Massie, a Republican from Kentucky, said they have serious concerns that the Justice Department failed to follow the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which required the records to be released last month. They said they believe criminal violations may have occurred in the release process.