Jon Stewart Urges Clintons To Comply With Congressional Subpoenas In Epstein Probe

Jon Stewart, host of The Daily Show, said on his podcast that former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton should "absolutely" comply with congressional subpoenas tied to the Jeffrey Epstein investigation — even as he criticized uneven transparency from other government institutions.

Answering an audience question on his "Weekly Show" podcast, Stewart noted that both Clintons declined subpoenas to appear before the House Oversight Committee this week. He said he believes they should cooperate, while also questioning whether compliance should be applied universally if other entities are withholding records.

"Do I personally think they should comply? Abso—f***ing—lutely. Absolutely," Stewart said, adding that the Department of Justice should likewise be transparent in releasing documents related to the case.

Stewart argued that the public deserves clarity if the Clintons possess relevant information. "And if they've got something to hide or an affair, like yes, we should know about all this," he said. "This is bonkers, how long this is going on. But absolutely, they should comply and the Department of Justice should comply, and these victims of this heinous case should finally get some of the justice and peace that they deserve."

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman James Comer talks to the person who was interrupting him as he spoke to reporters after former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did not appear for a closed-door deposition in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill on January 14, 2026, in Washington, D.C.

Committee Action And The Clintons' Response

It was the House Oversight Committee — not the Department of Justice — that issued the subpoenas. Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) told reporters the Clintons could face consequences for defying the panel's orders, saying the committee's subpoenas are lawful and have been enforced with other witnesses.

The Clintons' attorneys pushed back in a letter, saying the former president and secretary of state "have already provided the limited information they possess about Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell to the Committee." Their lawyers warned that compelling testimony would provoke a "protracted and unnecessary legal confrontation" and argued it could distract from Congress's work on victims' justice.

Document Transparency And The DOJ

The dispute over testimony and documents sits against the backdrop of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, signed into law last November, which directed the Department of Justice to publish unclassified records and investigative materials related to Epstein in a searchable format.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her husband, former U.S. President Bill Clinton.

In a recent letter to U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer, the DOJ said there are "more than 2 million documents potentially responsive to the Act" undergoing review. To date, the department has released roughly 12,285 documents totaling about 125,575 pages — a volume that news outlets report is less than 1% of the total potentially related records. The DOJ has said many items under review may be duplicates.

Republican oversight officials have signaled possible contempt proceedings if the Clintons continue to refuse subpoenas as the committee presses for fuller disclosure of records and testimony connected to Epstein and his associates.

Note: The Clintons did not immediately respond to requests for comment.