We are likely closer to the beginning than the end of the story about whether former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton face charges, and possible prison time, for contempt of Congress. But the fact that it got this far, with the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee recommending contempt for the Clintons for refusing to comply with a congressional subpoena, is striking.

With the House in GOP control, and a Justice Department run by GOP appointees, and a U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, D.C., run by GOP appointees, the Clintons, no strangers to having Republicans go after them, might be in for a perilous legal journey if negotiations with the committee for their testimony about the deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and their past contact with him do not yield an agreement.

The Clintons know how to go toe-to-toe with Republicans and have for decades now. Bill Clinton survived an impeachment trial in the 1990s, and came out more popular with the public. Hillary Clinton won a Senate seat and later as the Democratic presidential nominee won the popular vote but lost the Electoral College vote in 2016 against Donald Trump. They are survivors, sure, but past performance is no guarantee of future performance, and the Epstein saga has a very peculiar way of scrambling the political calculus.

This might be just the latest contempt of Congress drama to get tamped down when people get down to brass tacks and come up with a solution everyone can live with. But politics has gotten a whole lot rougher as of late, and this administration in particular has shown a propensity for indicting first and asking questions later. There are plenty of off-ramps to take. But the longer the journey lasts, the fewer of them there are.

Show Notes:

• House committee recommends contempt of Congress for Clintons
• Trump ally appeals contempt of Congress case to Supreme Court
• Navarro argues contempt of Congress conviction at appeals court
• In historic vote, Attorney General Eric Holder held In contempt
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