Hunter Biden reverses course, agrees to sit for deposition in father's impeachment inquiry

In a dramatic about-face, Hunter Biden's lawyers told Congress on Friday that the first son will agree to sit for a deposition or public hearing in his father's impeachment inquiry.

Attorney Abbe Lowell informed House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan of his client's decision, but asked that a new subpoena be issued since Congress formally approved an impeachment inquiry since Hunter Biden was first asked to be interviewed.

"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," Lowell wrote. "We will accept such a subpoena on Mr. Biden’s behalf."

Last week, House Republicans under Comer’s leadership moved to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress over his failure to appear for a closed-door deposition under subpoena from the committees.

Instead, the first son appeared outside of the Capitol to denounce the Republican impeachment inquiry into his father and his family’s foreign business dealings. He also pointedly refused to appear for the closed-door interview and demanded a public hearing.

The news from Hunter Biden's lawyer comes as Rep. Steve Scalise, the GOP House Majority Leader, announced on Friday in a post to X that the chamber would take a vote to hold Hunter Biden in contempt after the Oversight and Judiciary Committees approved the resolution earlier this week along party lines.

Now that Hunter Biden’s lawyer has notified the committees that his client will accept a new subpoena to testify after the formal impeachment inquiry authorization, it remains to be seen if the Republican House will proceed with its contempt vote next week.

Could be a ruse, who knows. But the response is appropriate. A subpoena is the equivalent of a court order requiring the person to appear in the date, at the time and at the place specified. It’s not uncommon to request a new subpoena be issued.

The posters that characterize this as Republicans cave are wrong: the DOJ is not going to prosecute him, so the citation for contempt is worthless. Even if they did, the goal of civil contempt is to get the person to comply, not so much to punish them for not doing so before. I would envision Hunter entering a plea of no contest and the judge ordering him to sit for the deposition and deferring sentencing until after. Judge would then either dismiss the contempt as moot, or sentence him to a year’s probation with the requirement to obey all laws.

The stunt the other day was their effort to just throw a curveball and see if it might work. If the Republicans would cave and allow the testimony in front of the committee instead of a deposition. This is what Hunter wanted because of the time limits on questioning in committee. They didn’t cave, though perennial drooling idiot Nancy Mace was kind enough to inject white privilege and gender discrimination into the discussion.

But I’m also not sure what all the fuss is about. He’s going to take the 5th

Looks like Joe Biden is reading the tea leaves——
<><>Hunter’s lawyer has graciously outlined the terms of Hunter’s conviction
<><>Congress must convict Hunter of all federal charges ASAP
<><>Hunter needs daddy’s pardon lickety-split
<><>since Joe knows we, the people, are throwing him out of office.

Hunter Biden agrees to deposition, GOP chairs
say contempt resolution on track until a date is set

cnbc.com, FRI, JAN 12 2024, Kevin Breuninger

KEY POINTS
An attorney for Hunter Biden said he will comply with congressional subpoenas for a deposition with Republican investigators if they issue a new one. Hunter Biden previously refused to comply with subpoenas for a closed-door deposition as part of a GOP impeachment inquiry into his father, President Joe Biden, offering instead to testify at a public hearing. The House remains on track to vote next week on Republican-led committee resolutions recommending that Hunter Biden be held in contempt of Congress.

Hunter Biden’s attorney told two House Republican committee chairmen Friday that he will comply with subpoenas demanding his deposition if they issue a new one — a reversal of his prior demand that such testimony be given at a public hearing.

The chairmen later said that they would work with Biden to schedule a date for a private deposition as part of an ongoing impeachment probe of his father, President Joe Biden. But until Hunter Biden confirms that date, they will move ahead with a plan to have the full House of Representatives vote late next week on a resolution holding him in contempt of Congress for defying prior subpoenas demanding his closed-door testimony.

“We will not tolerate any additional stunts or delay from Hunter Biden,” said House Oversight Chair James Comer, R-Ky., and Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, in a joint statement. “The American people will not tolerate, and the House will not provide, special treatment for the Biden family.”

Hunter Biden’s surprising offer to appear for a private deposition came two days after Comer and Jordan’s panels passed resolutions urging the House to hold him in contempt. Biden showed up at the Oversight Committee panel hours before the vote, silently staring down GOP lawmakers.If Biden were to be found in contempt, the Department of Justice would consider whether to prosecute him for failing to comply with the prior subpoenas.

In his letter Friday, Biden’s attorney Abbe Lowell told Comer and Jordan those subpoenas, issued in November, were legally invalid because they came before the House voted to formalize the impeachment inquiry. But, “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,” Lowell wrote. “We will accept such a subpoena on Mr. Biden’s behalf.”

Lowell’s offer came at the end of an eight-page letter criticizing the chairman for passing contempt resolutions despite Biden’s insistence that he was willing to testify in public. “You proceeded with a contempt process, erroneously claiming Mr. Biden was seeking ‘special treatment,’ despite Mr. Comer’s repeated and public statements about witnesses’ and Mr. Biden’s ability to testify at a deposition or hearing at their choice,” Lowell wrote. Lowell has argued that a public hearing would prevent Republicans from taking Biden’s testimony in private only to later distort or mis-characterize what he said in statements to the media or elsewhere.

The attorney told Comer and Jordan that he was writing the letter to “make you aware ... that your subpoenas were and are legally invalid and cannot form a legal basis to proceed with your misdirected and impermissible contempt resolution.”

The impeachment probe centers on allegations that Joe Biden’s family members, with the Democratic president’s involvement, were corruptly exploiting his political status and power for personal financial gain. The Bidens and the White House have rejected any suggestion of “influence peddling” and have denied wrongdoing.

Hunter Biden is currently facing criminal charges in two federal courts.On Thursday, he pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles to nine criminal counts related to his failure to pay his income taxes on time. The judge in that case tentatively scheduled the trial to begin June 20. Biden previously pleaded not guilty in Delaware federal court to charges related to having a handgun while being a drug user.

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