Hunter Biden refuses to testify publicly, calls GOP investigation a ‘circus’
Hunter Biden, the president’s son, on Wednesday rejected a request from Republicans in the House of Representatives to testify next week at a public hearing in their impeachment inquiry against President Biden, labeling the Republican Party’s plans as a ” made for right-wing media circus act. ”
Republicans in the House of Representatives had asked the younger Biden to appear at a hearing on March 20 along with three of his former business partners. Two of them have been convicted in fraud cases, and the other is angry because he no longer has a deal.
But Abbe Lowell, Mr. Biden’s lawyer, cited a scheduling conflict while decrying the proceedings in a letter to Representative James R. Comer, Republican of Kentucky, the chairman of the Oversight Committee.
“Your blatant event planned for the media is not proper procedure, but an obvious attempt to give a Hail Mary pass after the game is over,” Mr. Lowell wrote, adding, “Mr. Biden declines your invitation to this carnival show.”
Republicans in the House of Representatives have been trying for months to tie the foreign affairs deals of Hunter Biden, who is accused of tax crimes, to his father as part of their impeachment inquiry. But they have so far failed to produce evidence of presidential misconduct — let alone high crimes and misdemeanors, the constitutional standard for impeachment.
Hunter Biden had a six-hour closed-door interview with House of Representatives investigators last month, often sparring with Republicans and criticizing their questions while offering explanations — often deeply unflattering to himself — for his actions. Despite pending criminal charges against him, Biden, 54, has never invoked his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself.
“Mr. Biden’s answers to every question you, your colleagues and staff asked him were the final nail in the coffin of your wasteful, years-long misadventure,” Mr. Lowell wrote.
Biden only agreed to a closed-door statement after Republicans rejected his demands to testify publicly. Republican lawmakers threatened to hold Mr. Biden in contempt of Congress before he relented.
Mr. Comer, in his response to Mr. Lowell’s letter, pointed to Mr. Biden’s previous emphasis on public testimony.
“The House Oversight Committee has called Hunter Biden’s bluff,” Mr. Comer said. “Hunter Biden has stated for months that he wanted a public hearing, but now that it is being offered alongside his business partners with whom he has worked for years, he is refusing to attend.”
House Republicans plan to hold another hearing with Hunter Biden’s former business partners: Jason Galanis, Devon Archer and Tony Bobulinski.
Mr. Galanis, who is serving 14 years in prison for fraud, told the panel that “Hunter Biden’s entire value-add to our company was his family name and his access to his father, Vice President Joe Biden.”
Mr. Archer, who was convicted in 2018 on federal tax charges related to a conspiracy to defraud a Native American tribe, has testified that he could remember about 20 times when he and Hunter Biden met with business associates and Mr. Biden met with his father on speaker phone. But he said those conversations were only about pleasantries and not about business transactions.
Mr. Bobulinski, described by Democrats as disgruntled for backing out of a business deal, told lawmakers that “Joe Biden was ‘the brand’ sold by the Biden family.”
Mr. Lowell wrote that there was one condition under which Mr. Biden would consider testifying: if Mr. Comer also invited relatives of former President Donald J. Trump to testify about their foreign affairs deals.
Mr. Biden and his lawyer have noted that Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, received a $2 billion investment from the main Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund six months after the end of Trump’s presidency, suggesting that the former president had used power to financially benefit his family — as Republicans have accused the elder Mr. Biden, without evidence.