A date has been set for Hunter Biden to testify before the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability and theHouse Committee on the Judiciary.
“Hunter Biden will appear before our committees for a deposition on February 28, 2024,” Committee Chairmen James Comer (R-Ky.) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said in a joint statement Thursday. “His deposition will come after several interviews with Biden family members and associates. We look forward to Hunter Biden’s testimony.”
The two House committee voted to send a resolution to the full House to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress last week, prompting Biden’s legal team to beg for another chance to comply with a congressional subpoena.
“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. We will accept such a subpoena on Mr. Biden’s behalf,” Abbe Lowell, Hunter Biden’s lawyer, wrote in a letter to Comer and Jordan.
For whatever reason, they decided to give Hunter that chance, rather than have the full House hold the vote.
Previously, Hunter Biden’s legal team claimed that the embattled First Son would only testify in a public hearing in an attempt to dictate the terms of his deposition, before Lowell decided this week to claim that those subpoenas were “legally invalid” because they preceded the formalization of the impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden.
Comer and Jordan promptly mocked Lowell’s evolving excuses.
“We received your letter dated January 12, 2024, indicating that your client, Robert Hunter Biden, is now willing to appear for a deposition under subpoena pursuant to the House’s ongoing impeachment inquiry and the legislative oversight authorities of the Committee on the Judiciary and the Committee on Oversight and Accountability,” Comer and Jordan said in a letter to Lowell. “To be clear, contrary to the assertions in your letter and for the reasons explained below, the subpoenas issued to Mr. Biden on November 8 and November 9, respectively, are lawful and legally enforceable. Mr. Biden has asserted no valid constitutional or legal privilege excusing him from complying with these subpoenas. The Committees will not afford Mr. Biden special treatment.”
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“The Committees welcome Mr. Biden’s newfound willingness to testify in a deposition setting under subpoena,” they continued. “Although the Committee’s subpoenas are lawful and remain legally enforceable, as an accommodation to Mr. Biden and at your request, we are prepared to issue subpoenas compelling Mr. Biden’s appearance at a deposition on a new date in the coming weeks. To be clear, the issuance of these subpoenas does not in any way suggest or imply that the Committees believe the assertions in your January 12 letter to have any merit. Our willingness to issue these subpoenas is rooted entirely in our interest in obtaining Mr. Biden’s testimony as expeditiously as possible.”
I still can’t explain why they didn’t proceed with a full House vote to hold Hunter in contempt. Since the House did vote to formalize the impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden, there’s little reason to believe that Hunter wouldn’t have been found in contempt of Congress.