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The president’s son Hunter Biden on Wednesday rejected a request from House Republicans to testify at next week’s hearing in President Biden’s impeachment inquiry, slamming the party’s plan as a “circus act for right-wing media.” did. ”
House Republicans had asked the younger Biden to appear at a March 20 hearing along with three former business partners. Two of them have been convicted in fraud cases, and the other is angry that his contract was terminated.
But in a letter to the Oversight Committee Chairman, Representative James R. Comer (R-Ky.), Mr. Biden’s lawyer, Abby Lowell, criticized the proceedings, citing scheduling conflicts.
“This blatant media plot is not proper proceedings and is a clear attempt to throw a Hail Mary pass after the game,” Rowell wrote, adding: Biden declined an invitation to the carnival entertainment. ”
House Republicans have been working for months to link his father’s business dealings to the overseas business of Hunter Biden, who is facing gun and tax charges, as part of their impeachment inquiry. But they have so far been unable to produce any evidence of wrongdoing by the president, much less any high crimes or misdemeanors that are the standard for impeachment under the Constitution.
The judge in the gun case tentatively set Biden’s trial for early June.
Hunter Biden sat in a six-hour closed-door meeting with House investigators last month, frequently sparring with Republican lawmakers and criticizing their questions while offering explanations for his actions (often (It was extremely unpleasant for me.) Mr. Biden, 54, never exercised his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, even though his criminal charges were pending.
“Mr. Biden’s answers to every question you, your colleagues, and your staff posed to him were the final nail in the coffin of your wasted year of misery,” Lowell wrote.
Biden agreed to the private deposition only after Republicans rejected his request to allow him to testify in public. Republican lawmakers threatened to hold Mr. Biden in contempt of Congress before he relented.
In his response to Lowell’s letter, Comer noted that Biden had previously insisted on public testimony.
“The House Oversight Committee has determined that this is Hunter Biden’s bluff,” Comer said. “Hunter Biden has said for months that he wanted a hearing, but he has refused to attend one as it was proposed to him, along with business associates he has worked with over the years. ”
House Republicans will next hold a hearing with Hunter Biden’s former business associates Jason Galanis, Devon Archer and Tony Bobulinski.
Galanis, who is serving a 14-year prison sentence for fraud, told the committee that “Hunter Biden’s value-add to our business is due to his last name and his father, Vice President Joe Biden.” “I had contact with him,” he said.
Mr. Archer, who was convicted in 2018 on federal tax charges related to a conspiracy to defraud a Native American tribe, said he and Hunter Biden were meeting with business associates when Mr. He testified that he could recall about 20 arrests. On speakerphone. However, he said those conversations were only friendly and did not mention any business transactions.
“Joe Biden was a ‘brand’ being sold by the Biden family,” Bobulinski told lawmakers, explaining that Democrats were unhappy about being cut out of business deals.
Lowell wrote that there is one condition for Biden to consider testifying: if Comer also invites relatives of former President Donald J. Trump to testify about his foreign business dealings.
Biden and his lawyers pointed out that Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, received a $2 billion investment from a major Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund six months after Trump’s presidential term ended. He said it suggests the president used his power. Republicans are accusing the elderly Biden of doing so, without evidence.
glen thrush Contributed to the report.
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