President Joe Biden’s son on Jan. 12 said he’ll testify behind closed doors to lawmakers, backtracking on his earlier resistance as the U.S. House of Representatives prepares to hold him in contempt of Congress.
Hunter Biden, 53, said through a lawyer in a letter to Reps. James Comer (R-Ky.) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) that he would comply with a subpoena to appear, but only if a new subpoena is issued.
Mr. Comer and Mr. Jordan in 2023 subpoenas ordered Mr. Biden to testify in private in December. But those subpoenas were “legally invalid” because they came before the House approved an impeachment inquiry into President Biden, Abbe Lowell, Mr. Biden’s lawyer claimed.
He pointed to a Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) legal opinion from 2020, which responded to concerns about how Democrats proceeded then in an impeachment probe against then-President Donald Trump, that subpoenas issued before impeachment inquiry authorization were “invalid” because “the committees lacked the authority to conduct the purported inquiry.”
“Despite your complaints and the Republicans’ obtaining a definitive legal opinion in 2020, you seemed to forget what occurred just four years ago and followed the same course that Republican leadership at the time and the OLC opined to be improper,” Mr. Lowell wrote.
“If you issue a new proper subpoena, now that there is a duly authorized impeachment inquiry, Mr. Biden will comply for a hearing or deposition,” Mr. Lowell added.
Requests for comment were sent to the offices of Mr. Comer, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, and Mr. Jordan, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. Neither has yet provided a comment.
But some Republicans suggested the upcoming vote would not be canceled.
“Next week the House will vote to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress for repeatedly defying subpoenas,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) said on Friday. “Enough of his stunts. He doesn’t get to play by a different set of rules. He’s not above the law.”
Democrats, meanwhile, called for Republicans to issue a new subpoena.
“Hunter Biden is giving Republicans exactly what they have been demanding this week. In a letter today he has offered to appear for a ‘hearing or deposition.’ It is time for Chairs Comer and Jordan to call off this truly absurd and wasteful contempt proceeding and finally take yes for an answer,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, said in a statement.
The two House panels this week voted to send reports and resolutions recommending Mr. Biden be held in contempt to the full House.
The resolutions say that Mr. Biden “shall be found to be in contempt of Congress for failure to comply with a congressional subpoena.”
Mr. Comer has said the House would vote on the matter next week, and that there are enough members in support to hold Mr. Biden in contempt.
If a simple majority does vote in favor, then the House would send a prosecution referral to federal prosecutors. Contempt carries a prison sentence of up to one year in prison.
Republicans said in a letter attached to one of the subpoenas that records they’ve reviewed show Mr. Biden and other family members hauled in millions of dollars while President Biden was vice president in part by “leveraging the Biden brand and the positions of trust held by his father.” They also said some evidence shows President Biden “was at least aware of some of his family’s business ventures and sought to influence potential business deals that financially benefited his family,” citing how Mr. Biden’s former business partner testified that President Biden was on the phone with his son during some of the latter’s business meetings.
“The committees require your client’s testimony to provide evidence that is relevant to the impeachment inquiry,” Republicans told Mr. Lowell at the time. “In particular, your client has personal knowledge of whether and how President Biden has been involved in his family’s business dealings.”
In addition to helping assist the inquiry, Mr. Biden’s testimony could help craft future ethics and financial disclosure laws, according to the Republicans.
They pointed in the recent reports to authority bestowed by the Constitution that enables the House to impeach presidents and conduct legislative oversight.
Mr. Lowell said in the new missive that the subpoenas were clearly aimed at eliciting information for the inquiry, despite the fact no such inquiry had been approved by the House. With regards to the other stated purposes, he highlighted how the OLC covered that in its opinion, which said that “assertion of dual authorities presented the question whether the committees could leverage their oversight jurisdiction to require the production of documents and testimony that the committees avowedly intended to use for an unauthorized impeachment inquiry” and “we advised that, under the circumstances of these subpoenas, the committees could not do so.”
That’s when he said Mr. Biden would comply with any new subpoenas that are issued since they would come after the impeachment inquiry vote.
From The Epoch Times
