House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., on Friday announced that his panel and the Judiciary Committee will hold public markups on a resolution to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress following his refusal to appear for a deposition.
Comer said the House panels will hold full-committee votes on contempt charges against President Joe Biden’s son as the GOP moves into the final stages of its monthslong impeachment inquiry. If the charges pass the committees, they would then go to the House floor for a final vote.
Biden last month refused to sit down for a closed-door meeting with the panels after being issued a subpoena, instead holding a press conference on the Capitol grounds where he made a statement but did not take questions from the media.
“Our investigation has produced significant evidence suggesting President Biden knew of, participated in, and benefitted from his family cashing in on the Biden name,” Comer said in a statement along with Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, whose committee also also will hold a markup.
“We planned to question Hunter Biden about this record of evidence, but he blatantly defied two lawful subpoenas, choosing to read a prepared statement outside of the Capitol instead of appearing for testimony as required,” the statement continues.
“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.”
The markup hearing is scheduled to take place on Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. and will be streamed online.
Hunter Biden and his lawyers repeatedly have slammed the GOP-issued subpoena for the closed-door testimony, arguing that information from those interviews can be selectively leaked and manipulated. The younger Biden has insisted that he would only testify in public.
“Republicans do not want an open process where Americans can see their tactics, expose their baseless inquiry, or hear what I have to say,” Hunter Biden said outside the Capitol in a rare public statement last month. “What are they afraid of? I am here.”
For months, Republicans have pursued an impeachment inquiry seeking to tie the Democrat president to his son’s business dealings.
While Republicans say their inquiry is ultimately focused on the president, they have taken particular interest in Hunter Biden and his overseas business dealings, from which they accuse the president of personally benefiting. Republicans also have focused a large part of their investigation on whistleblower allegations of interference in the long-running Justice Department investigation into the younger Biden’s taxes and his gun use.
The hearings planned for Wednesday on contempt of Congress will come a day before Hunter Biden is scheduled to make his first court appearance on tax charges filed by a special counsel in Los Angeles. He’s facing three felony and six misdemeanor counts, including filing a false return, tax evasion, failure to file and failure to pay.
In a fiery response, Biden defense attorney Abbe Lowell accused special counsel David Weiss of “bowing to Republican pressure” in the case.