Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden’s son, accompanied by his legal professional Abbe Lowell, left, talks to reporters as they go away a Home Oversight Committee listening to as Republicans are taking step one towards holding him in contempt of Congress, Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024, on Capitol Hill in Washington.
Jose Luis Magana/AP
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Jose Luis Magana/AP
Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden’s son, accompanied by his legal professional Abbe Lowell, left, talks to reporters as they go away a Home Oversight Committee listening to as Republicans are taking step one towards holding him in contempt of Congress, Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024, on Capitol Hill in Washington.
Jose Luis Magana/AP
WASHINGTON — Hunter Biden has agreed to seem earlier than Home Republicans for a non-public deposition subsequent month, ending months of defiance from the president’s son, who had insisted on testifying publicly.
The Home Oversight Committee introduced Thursday that the 2 events have agreed for Hunter Biden to sit down for a deposition on Feb. 28.
”The president’s son is a key witness on this investigation and he is gonna have the ability to are available now and sit down and reply questions in a substantive, orderly method,” Rep. James Comer, chair of the Oversight Committee, informed reporters. He added that Hunter Biden will have the ability to testify publicly someday after his deposition.
Information of the settlement was confirmed by Hunter Biden’s authorized crew Thursday evening.
Republicans had been set to advance a contempt decision towards him to the Home flooring this week however known as it off Tuesday to provide the attorneys extra time to barter. If that they had voted on the contempt decision, the referral would have been despatched to the Justice Division the place the U.S. legal professional for the District of Columbia would have needed to determine whether or not to prosecute Hunter Biden.
The settlement concludes months of contentious back-and-forth between President Joe Biden’s son and Republicans who’ve been investigating his abroad enterprise dealings for over a yr in a to this point futile effort to attach it to his father.
Republicans, led by Comer and Jordan, first subpoenaed the youthful Biden in November, demanding that he seem earlier than lawmakers in a non-public setting by mid-December. Biden and his attorneys refused to adjust to the personal interview, saying that it will enable info to be selectively leaked and manipulated by Home Republicans and insisted that he would solely testify in a public setting.
When Republicans denied these phrases, Hunter Biden and his attorneys made two separate appearances on the U.S. Capitol, additional angering congressional investigators. In each cases, Biden once more refused to testify privately, as a substitute delivering statements to the press the place he defended his enterprise affairs and castigated the yearslong investigations into him and his household.
”There isn’t a proof to assist the allegations that my father was financially concerned in my enterprise as a result of it didn’t occur,” the president’s son stated in remarks outdoors the Capitol in December.
He added, ”There isn’t a equity or decency in what these Republicans are doing — they’ve lied time and again about each facet of my private {and professional} life — a lot in order that their lies have turn out to be the false information believed by too many individuals.
However Hunter Biden and his authorized crew appeared to shift gears late final week once they despatched a letter to Comer and Rep. Jim Jordan, the chair of the Home Judiciary Committee, indicating a willingness for the primary time to come back in for a non-public deposition.
Abbe Lowell, Hunter Biden’s legal professional, wrote in a letter Friday that his consumer’s cooperation depends on the committee issuing a brand new subpoena, which they’ll now do given the up to date deposition date. That they had argued that the 2 subpoenas despatched in final yr weren’t reliable as a result of they had been issued earlier than the complete Home approved the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.
The impeachment inquiry into the president, which started in September, has centered closely on Hunter Biden and his worldwide enterprise affairs, questioning whether or not the president profited from that work. It has to this point didn’t uncover proof straight implicating Joe Biden in wrongdoing involving his son’s work.
In the meantime, Hunter Biden is presently dealing with felony fees in two states from the particular counsel investigation. He is charged with firearm counts in Delaware, alleging he broke legal guidelines towards drug customers having weapons in 2018, a interval when he has acknowledged scuffling with dependancy. Particular counsel David Weiss filed extra fees final month, alleging he didn’t pay about $1.4 million in taxes over three years.
He has pleaded not responsible in each circumstances.