Hunter Biden appears at Capitol, defies subpoena from House Republicans
After weeks of back and forth and a threat to hold him in contempt of Congress, Hunter Biden briefly appeared in the Capitol complex on Wednesday, making a public statement outside the building instead of showing for his scheduled deposition following a subpoena from House Republicans.
Hunter Biden railed against the investigation from House Republicans, blasting the probe ahead of a vote to ignite an impeachment inquiry into his father, President Biden.
He said he was at the Capitol to testify in a public setting — bucking investigators’ request for a closed-door deposition.
"For six years, I've been the target of the unrelenting Trump attack machine shouting. ‘Where's Hunter?’” Hunter Biden said in a statement to reporters. “Well, here’s my answer. I am here.”
“Let me state as clearly as I can: My father was not financially involved in my business — Not as a practicing lawyer. Not as a board member of Burisma, not in my partnership with a Chinese private businessman, not my investment at all nor abroad, and certainly not as an artist,” he said, running through a number of key aspects of the GOP probes.
“There's no evidence to support the allegations that my father was financially involved in my business, because it did not happen,” Biden added.
Defying the subpoena runs the risk Republicans will hold him in contempt of Congress — one that would add to the mounting legal trouble faced by the president’s son.
“My expectation is that we will hold him in contempt,” Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said shortly after Hunter Biden's remarks.
The House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) and House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) had moved to compel Hunter Biden’s testimony as they push forward with an impeachment inquiry into his father, President Biden.
“Chairman Jordan and I have been very clear when we issued a lawful subpoena to the president son, that we expect him to come in and be deposed. This is a normal process and investigation,” Comer said on Wednesday.
Hunter Biden’s appearance in the Capitol complex at all is a milestone in the long Republican scrutiny of his business activities and tumultuous personal life — and comes on the same day that Republicans are set to formally authorize their impeachment inquiry with a House vote.
Jordan pointed to that upcoming vote in his remarks.
“Mr. Biden's counsel and the White House have both argued that the reason he couldn't come for a deposition was because there wasn't a formal vote for an impeachment inquiry. Well, that's going to happen in a few hours. We think it's going to pass," Jordan said.
He added, “And when that happens, we'll see what their excuse is then.”
Before Wednesday morning, lawmakers were not sure whether Biden would show up to the deposition. His lawyer, Abbe Lowell, had responded to the subpoena with an offer for Hunter Biden to appear before the Oversight panel in a public format, but not a closed-door deposition.
Lowell had charged that Republicans “use closed-door sessions to manipulate, even distort the facts and misinform the public,” and to previous public statements from Comer appearing to express support for seeing Biden in a public format.
Republicans dismissed the offer, threatening to hold Biden in contempt of Congress if he did not show up for the deposition.
Comer had offered a public hearing at a later date and said that he would release the transcript from the deposition, but argued that closed-door format with the committee methodically asking questions was necessary before bringing Biden before a public hearing — which would involve five-minute questioning time for members bouncing from Republicans to Democrats.
The House GOP’s multi-pronged impeachment probe is digging into hotly disputed allegations about whether President Biden improperly benefited from or used policy to benefit the foreign business dealings of family members, as well as allegations that the Department of Justice improperly slow-walked a tax crimes investigation into Hunter Biden. The president and the White House have repeatedly denied wrongdoing and said that Biden was not involved in his family’s business dealings.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the ranking member on the Oversight panel, slammed the investigation on Wednesday.
“You know, the mysteries are called a who done it, because it starts with a crime and then you try to determine who committed it. This is more like a what is it? Not who done it? We don't know what the crime is,” he said.
The deposition also came at an inopportune time in Hunter Biden’s broader legal troubles, as he was indicted just last week on tax charges that are among the topics congressional investigators wish to discuss, alongside a now-evaporated plea deal that would have had him plead guilty to misdemeanor tax charges.
But any comments he makes in the deposition could be used against him in court – adding greater risk to a case where he already faces up to 17 years in prison.
Updated at 10:45 a.m.