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President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden will sit for a closed-door deposition with the Home Oversight and Judiciary committees on Feb. 28, the committee chairmen stated on Thursday, after weeks of backwards and forwards with the youthful Biden, who confronted the specter of being held in contempt of Congress.
“[Hunter Biden’s] deposition will come after a number of interviews with Biden relations and associates. We look ahead to Hunter Biden’s testimony,” James Comer, R-Ky., and Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, the oversight and judiciary chairs, stated in an announcement.
Talking with reporters later Thursday, Comer stated, “He is going to have the ability to are available now and sit down and reply questions in a substantive, orderly method.”
“We now have a whole lot of questions,” Comer stated.
Members from the three committees charged with main the impeachment inquiry — judiciary, oversight and methods and means — will have the ability to attend and ask questions, he stated.
The president’s son had been subpoenaed to take a seat for a closed-door deposition late final 12 months within the Republican-led impeachment inquiry into the president however stated he would testify solely in a public discussion board and beforehand castigated the probe as “illegitimate.”
A supply accustomed to negotiations on the deposition stated that Hunter Biden was involved any personal feedback to lawmakers could possibly be selectively launched.
As an alternative of sitting for a closed-door interview on Dec. 13, as required by his subpoena, Hunter Biden held a defiant information convention simply outdoors the U.S. Capitol.
“Republicans don’t want an open course of the place Individuals can see their techniques, expose their baseless inquiry, or hear what I’ve to say. What are they afraid of? I’m right here,” he stated then.
He confronted a contempt vote for his refusal and, had he been held in contempt, he might have been prosecuted by the Division of Justice. However his settlement to testify will postpone and doubtlessly render moot the pending contempt vote.
Congressional Republicans have stated that they’re open to public testimony at an unspecified “future date” however “needn’t and won’t accede to Mr. Biden’s demand for particular remedy with respect to how he offers testimony.”
Hunter Biden attends the Home Oversight and Accountability Committee markup titled “Decision Recommending That The Home Of Representatives Discover Robert Hunter Biden In Contempt Of Congress,” Jan. 10, 2024.
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Name through Getty Photographs
The Biden impeachment inquiry, launched unilaterally by now-ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy after which formalized months later by the Home in a party-line vote, has but to yield any concrete proof to assist GOP claims that Joe Biden participated in and profited from his son and household’s overseas enterprise dealings.
The president has denied any wrongdoing.
A Home Oversight Committee report recommending a contempt cost in opposition to Hunter Biden acknowledged that his testimony was “essential” to find out whether or not there are “adequate grounds” for impeachment of the president. Comer stated Thursday that “we’re very involved that the president of the USA could possibly be compromised.”
On Jan. 10, Hunter Biden made a shock look at a contempt listening to being held by the Home Oversight Committee — a transfer that sparked outrage from Republicans.
“You are the epitome of white privilege, coming into the Oversight Committee, spitting in our face, ignoring a congressional subpoena to be deposed. What are you afraid of?” South Carolina Republican Rep. Nancy Mace stated simply after he entered the room. She went on to say the youthful Biden ought to be arrested and go “straight to jail.”
Hunter Biden’s lawyer Abbe Lowell accompanied him to the listening to and spoke to the press outdoors, although Hunter Biden ignored shouted questions.
“Hunter Biden was and is a personal citizen. Regardless of this, Republicans have sought to make use of him as a surrogate to assault his father,” Lowell stated.
He accused Republicans of caring “little concerning the fact” and attempting to “maintain somebody in contempt who has provided to publicly reply all their correct questions.”
In a letter despatched Friday morning to Comer and Jordan, Lowell argued the subpoenas and strikes to seek out Hunter Biden in contempt undergo from “impropriety and authorized invalidity.”
Comer pushed again on Hunter Biden’s resistance at Wednesday’s listening to.
“We won’t present Hunter Biden particular remedy due to his final identify. All Individuals should be handled equally below the regulation, and that features the Bidens,” he stated.
ABC Information’ Lucien Bruggeman contributed to this report.
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