Next Monday, the House Judiciary Committee will take up a resolution that would find Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress for refusing to attend for a deposition, after being served with a subpoena.
The president's son, Hunter Biden, was scheduled to testify last month before representatives from three different committees looking into his financial activities, as The Hill reported.
Rather, he reiterated his readiness to engage with the panels only in a public forum while addressing the Senate. Last month, lawmakers threatened to hold Biden in contempt of Congress.
“We’re going to move forward with contempt proceedings. … There’s a process we have to follow, but we plan to do that,” House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said Dec. 13.
The resolution needs to be considered by the entire House after being decided upon by the Judiciary Committee.
In a statement released on Friday, Biden's lawyer Abbe Lowell charged that the Republican committee chairs were still trying “to play politics by seeking an unprecedented contempt motion against someone who has from the first request offered to answer all their proper questions. What are they afraid of?”
A resolution of contempt of Congress essentially acts as a referral to the Justice Department, which has the authority to decide whether to file charges, even if a public censure of the son of the current president would be unprecedented in and of itself.
Hunter Biden is also facing criminal tax charges in California and charges in Delaware for purchasing a handgun without revealing his drug usage, so that's a risky move.
Nevertheless, he acknowledged the offer made by House Oversight and Accountability Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) during his press conference on the Senate grounds.
Comer had earlier declared he would "drop everything" if Biden desired to testify in public and had accused the GOP of breaking that promise. He also talked about the main focus of his father's investigation.
“For six years, I’ve been the target of the unrelenting Trump attack machine shouting. ‘Where’s Hunter?’” Biden said in a statement to reporters. “Well, here’s my answer. I am here.”
“Let me state as clearly as I can: My father was not financially involved in my business. Not as a practicing lawyer. Not as a board member of Burisma. Not in my partnership with a Chinese private businessman, not my investment at all nor abroad, and certainly not as an artist,” he said, running through a number of key aspects of the GOP probes.
“There’s no evidence to support the allegations that my father was financially involved in my business, because it did not happen,” Biden added.
However, Comer and Jordan said in a joint statement, that “Hunter Biden’s willful refusal to comply with our subpoenas constitutes contempt of Congress and warrants referral to the appropriate United States Attorney’s Office for prosecution. We will not provide him with special treatment because of his last name,”
On Friday, Comer was criticized by Democrats for not honoring an earlier promise to allow Biden to testify in public.
