In a striking turn of events in Washington, DC, Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, opted for a public statement over a scheduled interview with the House Oversight Committee. Amidst ongoing scrutiny, he made a public appearance near the Capitol, emphatically denying his father’s financial involvement in his various business dealings.
Hunter Biden, addressing the media, stated, “I am here to confront the accusations head-on. My father played no role in my business ventures – whether as a lawyer, artist, Burisma board member, or in any dealings with Chinese and other international partners.”
This development occurred as Hunter Biden was expected to attend a private interview with the Oversight Committee at 9:30 a.m. Instead, he chose to deliver a five-minute statement outside the Capitol, around 10 minutes past the scheduled time.
His decision seemingly influenced the House Republicans’ move to initiate an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden, examining his possible involvement in his son and brother’s foreign business transactions.
Represented by prominent attorney Abbe Lowell, Hunter Biden’s legal team pushed for a public hearing, countering the committee’s preference for a closed-door deposition. In his public address, Hunter Biden accused Republicans of invading his privacy and maligning his character, insisting on his father’s non-involvement in his affairs. He refuted press questions, maintaining a consistent narrative about his father’s lack of financial engagement in his ventures.
Evidence, however, suggests that President Biden met with associates from his son’s Chinese business ventures and contacts from Mexico, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine. These meetings coincide with Joe Biden’s tenure as Vice President, during which he oversaw US foreign policy in these regions.
Hunter Biden condemned the Republicans’ reluctance for an open process, accusing them of distorting facts and exploiting his past financial indiscretions during his struggles with addiction. He criticized their handling of his personal data and communication, labeling the impeachment inquiry as baseless.
Republican leaders of the impeachment investigation expressed frustration at this approach. House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer emphasized the committee’s lawful authority to subpoena the president’s son and expressed readiness for a public hearing following a deposition.
Jim Jordan, House Judiciary Committee Chairman, stressed the need for facts over rhetoric in an open setting. He referenced the White House’s objection to a formal impeachment inquiry vote as a reason for Hunter’s non-appearance at the deposition.
Darrell Issa, a Republican congressman, suggested Hunter Biden might invoke the Fifth Amendment to avoid discussing his business connections with his father, which are now under scrutiny. He criticized Hunter’s approach as an evasion of direct questioning.
There was also speculation that Hunter Biden chose to speak on the Senate side of the Capitol to avoid potential detention by the House Sergeant at Arms. This move was interpreted by some, including Rep. Mike Collins, as a calculated effort to avoid compulsory appearance before the committee.
Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, spearheaded the Democratic defense of the Bidens, arguing that Joe Biden could not be more innocent. Republicans, on the other hand, claim that Biden may have gotten some foreign funds in addition to meeting with international partners.”President Biden is an ideal man. Hunter made some comments, to which Raskin replied, “They have not touched President Biden and they have no proof of him committing any offense, much less an impeachable offense.”
Articles of impeachment against Biden have been proposed by Republicans and legal experts for offenses ranging from bribery to abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
In other instances, courts have decided that payments to family members count as bribery for politicians, even though the amounts in question are far lower. In a recent column, legal professor Jonathan Turley of George Washington University asserted that the Justice Department had adopted a similar position in other cases.
Ignoring the deposition could make Hunter Biden’s legal issues worse.
Witnesses who defy congressional subpoenas may face legal action; if the House chooses to send the case to another chamber, Hunter’s father’s Justice Department will be in charge of prosecuting him.
The former top strategist of President Donald Trump, Steve Bannon, was sentenced to four months in prison last year for eluding a subpoena from the House Select Committee, which was looking into the Capitol incident in 2021. Another former Trump aide, Peter Navarro, was found guilty in September of similar offenses and is still awaiting sentence.
After rejecting a probation-only plea agreement in July, Hunter is already facing criminal indictments on tax fraud accusations from Los Angeles and unlawful weapons possession charges from Wilmington. He took this move in order to get court guarantees that he would not face additional charges, such as potential offenses under the Foreign Agents Registration Act that may establish a connection between him and his father.
Undertaking a five-year probe into Hunter’s foreign income, IRS agents Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler emerged as whistleblowers this year, alleging the probe had been plodding and that they had been barred from looking into Joe Biden’s involvement in business dealings, even in cases where correspondence directly implicated the elder Biden.
Hunter Biden allegedly threatened a Chinese partner in a July 2017 text chat, saying he was “sitting here” with his father and threatening to exact his father’s revenge. The Chinese state-affiliated company transferred $5.1 million to accounts connected to James Biden, Hunter’s first brother, in less than ten days.
According to an email dated May 2017, Joe Biden, who had recently resigned as vice president, was originally expected to receive a 10% cut from Hunter’s partners as part of the same arrangement.
In a previous business transaction, then-Vice President Joe Biden met the CEO of the state-backed investment vehicle BHR Partners, which the second son had co-founded two weeks previously, for coffee. Later that year, Biden flew Hunter to China on Air Force Two.
In testimony before the Oversight Committee on July 31, Devon Archer, a longtime business associate of the Biden family, stated that on a later business trip to China, Hunter Biden put Joe Biden on speakerphone with Li.
Joe Biden also wrote reference letters for Li’s children to be sent to colleges.
For at least a portion of his father’s first year in office, Hunter Biden owned a 10% share in BHR; the details of his sale are unknown.
2015 saw Joe Biden receive guests at the official vice president’s residence in Washington, DC, including billionaire Carlos Slim and members of the affluent Aleman family. Hunter Biden lured the family in with energy and tech deals.
Archer told the Oversight Committee that Hunter played his father’s audio during approximately twenty business meetings with foreign associates, and Joe Biden went to two dinners in 2014 and 2015 at DC’s Cafe Milano with his son’s Kazakhstani, Russian, and Ukrainian clientele.
The vice president’s dining companions at the time included Vadym Pozharsky, board adviser to Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma Holdings, which paid Hunter up to $1 million annually starting in 2014 when his father took over US policy toward Ukraine; Kenes Rakishev, who bought a $142,000 sports car for the second son; and Yelena Baturina, the former first lady of Moscow, who donated $3.5 million to a company affiliated with Hunter Biden in 2014.