President Joe Biden’s son has agreed to testify to Congress, one of his lawyers said on Nov. 28.
Hunter Biden will answer questions before the U.S. House of Representatives Oversight Committee, lawyer Abbe Lowell said in a missive to the chairman of the panel.
“Our client will get right to it by agreeing to answer any pertinent and relevant question you or your colleagues might have,” Mr. Lowell told Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.).
But Mr. Lowell is demanding that the appearance take place in public.
“A public proceeding would prevent selective leaks, manipulated transcripts, doctored exhibits, or one-sided press statements,” Mr. Lowell wrote.
Mr. Comer issued subpoenas for Mr. Biden, the president’s brother James Biden, and others in November as part of the investigation into how involved President Biden was with the family’s business schemes.
A subpoena commanded Mr. Biden to appear in Washington on Dec. 13.
Mr. Comer said Tuesday that the appearance would happen behind closed doors.
“Hunter Biden is trying to play by his own rules instead of following the rules required of everyone else. That won’t stand with House Republicans,” Mr. Comer told The Epoch Times via email.
“Our lawfully issued subpoena to Hunter Biden requires him to appear for a deposition on December 13. We expect full cooperation with our subpoena for a deposition but also agree that Hunter Biden should have opportunity to testify in a public setting at a future date,” Mr. Comer added.
Defying a subpoena can result in criminal charges. Several Trump administration officials, including Steve Bannon, have been convicted of contempt of Congress for defying subpoenas.
‘Actively Involved’
In a letter accompanying the subpoena, Mr. Comer said the investigation of evidence, including bank statements, showed that Mr. Biden was “actively involved in the web connecting the Biden family to foreign money,” noting that many of the transactions happened when President Biden was vice president.
Mr. Comer said that Republicans, as part of their impeachment inquiry, required testimony from Mr. Biden. “In particular, your client has personal knowledge of whether and how President Biden has been involved in his family’s business dealings,” he wrote to Mr. Lowell.
Mr. Biden was also in a position to know how his father acted in relation to Ukraine and other matters, the congressman said.
Financial records obtained and made public by the Republicans show a network of shell companies set up by the Biden family while President Biden was vice president. The network was designed to hide payments to the family from foreigners, according to Republicans.
The family, their associates, and their companies raked in more than $24 million from various sources, including business operators and companies in China, Russia, and Kazakhstan, according to the records.
Republicans say their investigation will help craft laws on federal ethics and financial disclosures, with one aim being to strengthen reporting requirements for transactions involving foreigners and family members of top elected officials such as vice presidents.
Mr. Lowell previously told news outlets that the subpoena was “another political stunt aimed at distracting from the glaring failure of Rep. Comer and his MAGA allies to prove a single one of their wild and now discredited conspiracies about the Biden family.”
“Nevertheless, Hunter is eager to have the opportunity, in a public forum and at the right time, to discuss these matters with the Committee,” he said at the time.
A lawyer representing James Biden told The Epoch Times in an email that there was no justification for the subpoena of the president’s brother.
The White House has criticized the GOP impeachment inquiry.
“The most extreme voices in their party like James Comer are trying to distract from their repeated failures to govern,” Ian Sams, a White House spokesman, said in a statement.
President Biden’s campaign has also said that the inquiry is a political stunt.
Other subpoenas have been sent to George Bergès, who deals with the art created by Hunter Biden; former Mr. Biden associates Eric Schwerin and Mervyn Yan; and investor Elizabeth Naftali.
The subpoenas indicated that Mr. Biden’s former associates could help Republicans investigate the Biden family network.
Ms. Naftali, who donated to President Biden’s campaign and to other Democrats, and was one of the buyers of Mr. Biden’s art, was appointed to a commission eight months after Mr. Biden’s first showing.
The panel has already received records and testimony from banks and Devon Archer, a former family associate who testified that President Biden would regularly join business meetings by phone, although Mr. Archer stressed that no business was discussed when the elder Biden was participating.
The panel recently found two checks labeled as loan repayments from James Biden, the president’s brother, to President Biden that Republicans allege were funded by money from China and a failing rural hospital operator. Mr. Fishman has said they were loan repayments with nothing nefarious involved.
From The Epoch Times
