A House panel has rejected a proposal by President Biden‘s son to testify at a public hearing instead of a closed-door deposition about his foreign business deals that witnesses say at least indirectly involved then-Vice President Biden.
In a letter Friday to Hunter Biden‘s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer said the president’s son should first present closed-door testimony at a deposition scheduled for Dec. 13 and will testify publicly later.
Mr. Comer, Kentucky Republican, rejected assertions by Mr. Lowell that the Oversight Committee had produced no proof tying Hunter Biden‘s business deals with official actions taken by Mr. Biden during his vice presidency.
The Oversight panel is leading an impeachment inquiry into whether Mr. Biden used the vice presidency to help his family secure business deals. The committee has privately deposed several witnesses, avoiding public hearings that often devolve into partisan sideshows.
Mr. Lowell, in a letter to Mr. Comer sent earlier this week seeking to avoid a deposition, said the committee’s inquiry into Hunter Biden has been fruitless, whereas the panel has ignored former President Donald Trump and his household’s profitable companies.
“Unlike members of the Trump family, Hunter is a private person who has never worked in any family business nor ever served in the White House or in any public office,” Mr. Lowell wrote. “Notwithstanding this stark distinction, you might have manipulated Hunter‘s legitimate business dealings and his times of terrible addiction into a politically motivated basis for hearings to accuse his father of some wrongdoing.”
Mr. Comer, in the letter sent to Mr. Lowell on Friday, cited testimony from witnesses and IRS whistleblowers that tied the president to his son’s enterprise offers with China, Russia, Ukraine and different international locations.
Vice President Biden, in accordance with former enterprise associates, phoned in to or stopped by Hunter Biden‘s business meetings. IRS whistleblowers uncovered a WhatsApp message in which Hunter Biden invoked his father to a Chinese business partner, threatening him to produce a $5 million loan. Some of that money went straight to Mr. Biden’s checking account, House investigators say.
“Your letter is merely an extension of your coordinated campaign to discredit the allegations against Mr. Biden, distort the truth, and attack the integrity of witnesses against Mr. Biden,” Mr. Comer wrote to Mr. Lowell.
The Oversight panel subpoenaed Hunter Biden final month, calling on the president’s son to supply a non-public deposition, to not sit for a public listening to. The panel additionally subpoenaed the president’s youthful brother James Biden, who leveraged his highly effective brother to safe loans and enterprise offers.
House investigators have uncovered two giant checks from James Biden to his brother, labeled mortgage repayments. The checks had been written after James Biden acquired cash for enterprise offers.
On Wednesday, Mr. Comer launched a 2018 e-mail from financial institution investigators who flagged “unusual” and “erratic” wire transfers from a Chinese power firm into the checking account of Hunter Biden‘s regulation agency that didn’t seem like tied to any providers rendered.
President Biden has repeatedly denied involvement in any household enterprise offers or receiving any cash from household companies.
