Hunter Biden is scheduled to sit for a closed-door deposition with two powerful House committees on Feb. 28 as part of the GOP’s impeachment inquiry of President Joe Biden, the panels announced on Thursday.
The announcement came via a joint statement from House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) and House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).
“Hunter Biden will appear before our committees for a deposition on February 28, 2024,“ Mr. Comer and Mr. Jordan said. ”His deposition will come after several interviews with Biden family members and associates. We look forward to Hunter Biden’s testimony.”
The move marks a significant step in the GOP’s impeachment inquiry concerning what appear to be potentially significant conflicts of interest in President Biden’s role in his son’s business activities.
The House GOP lawmakers have been seeking Hunter Biden’s testimony for months as they investigate alleged “influence peddling” while his father served as vice president during the Obama administration.
Mr. Biden, as confirmed by a former associate, referred to his father, who was vice president at the time, as “the big guy” who could lend a hand to their foreign clients. Among those clients was Ukrainian energy firm Burisma.
The confirmation of a deposition date comes after weeks of negotiations between the president’s son and the House GOP committees.
The House panel chairmen recently agreed to a request from Hunter Biden’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, to issue a new subpoena after failing to comply with two subpoenas to appear before the panels, which prompted Republicans to initiate contempt of Congress proceedings.
Mr. Lowell stated in a letter addressed to Mr. Comer and Mr. Jordan that Mr. Biden would comply with a subpoena to appear, but only if a new subpoena is issued.
“The committees welcome Mr. Biden’s newfound willingness to testify in a deposition setting under subpoena. 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,” the chairmen told Mr. Lowell in a Jan. 14 letter.
The contempt resolution, which was previously adopted by the two committees, was dropped from a revised House Rules Committee schedule announced on Jan. 16.
The resolution came after Mr. Biden refused to appear for a closed-door deposition on Dec. 13, 2023, as required by a subpoena. Instead, he held a press conference on the Capitol grounds, during which he didn’t take questions.
“There’s no evidence to support the allegations that my father was financially involved in my business, because it did not happen,” Mr. Biden told reporters at the time.
Republicans allege, citing records they’ve reviewed, that President Biden and his family received millions of dollars by leveraging his position as vice president. They also say that evidence suggests the president was aware of his family’s business ventures and influenced deals that financially benefited them.
Hunter 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 in a letter attached to a subpoena in November. “In particular, your client has personal knowledge of whether and how President Biden has been involved in his family’s business dealings.”
The subpoenas required Mr. Biden to testify in private in December. However, these subpoenas were considered “legally invalid” by Mr. Lowell as they were issued prior to the House’s approval of an impeachment inquiry into President Biden.
Hunter Biden prefers a public meeting of the committee to face questioning about his business dealings with foreign entities in China, Ukraine, Romania, Russia, and other countries, citing concern about selective leaks and misconstrued testimony by panels.
After failing to comply, Mr. Biden made a surprise appearance at an Oversight Committee hearing on Jan. 10 where lawmakers were discussing a resolution to hold him in contempt of Congress. His lawyer issued a statement in a Capitol hallway after they had sat in the hearing room for a few minutes.
“The Republican chairs today then are commandeering an unprecedented resolution to hold someone in contempt who has offered to publicly answer all their proper questions,” Lowell said. “The question there is, what are they afraid of?”
