Hunter Biden snubs Republican subpoena, slams impeachment inquiry

Hunter Biden on Wednesday defied a congressional subpoena to appear privately for a deposition before Republican investigators who have been digging into his business dealings, insisting outside the U.S. Capitol that he will only testify in public.

The son of President Joe Biden slammed a subpoena requesting his closed-door testimony on Wednesday, saying it could be manipulated. Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, chairman of the House's oversight committee, has said Republicans expect "full co-operation" with its demands.

"What are they afraid of? I'm here, I'm ready," Hunter Biden said outside the Capitol. He said he was offered a choice to come in for depositions or committee hearings. "Well, I've chosen. I'm here to testify at a public hearing today to answer any of the committee's legitimate questions."

Republicans are pursuing an impeachment inquiry seeking to tie President Joe Biden to his son Hunter's business dealings, which included a sinecure on a Ukraine energy company board while his father was vice-president between 2009 and 2017. They have questioned the ethics surrounding the Biden family's international business, and lawmakers insist their evidence paints a troubling picture of "influence peddling" in their business dealings, particularly with clients overseas.

"This is about public corruption at the highest levels," said Comer on Wednesday, reiterating that Republicans were open to Hunter Biden testifying in public only after a closed-door session.

Comer said they would consider holding the president's son in contempt.

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Republicans so far failed to uncover evidence directly implicating President Biden in any wrongdoing, as some of their members have even admitted.

Nevertheless, the House oversight committee is planning to hold a vote as soon as Wednesday to formalize its impeachment inquiry.

Faces criminal charges

Hunter Biden, 53, said his father wasn't financially involved in his business activities.

"They have taken the light of my Dad's love for me and presented it as darkness," he said. "They have no shame."

Separately, Hunter Biden is facing criminal charges in two states from a special counsel overseeing a long-running investigation. He's charged with firearm counts in Delaware alleging he broke laws against drug users having guns in 2018, a period when he has acknowledged struggling with addiction.

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Special Counsel David Weiss also filed nine new tax counts last week alleging he schemed to avoid paying about $1.4 million US in taxes over a three-year period.

The charging documents filed in California alleged that Hunter Biden avoided taxes while spending on everything from drugs and escorts to luxury hotels and exotic cars.

Hunter Biden has admitted, including in a 2021 memoir, to drug use that spiralled into addiction after his brother, Beau, died of brain cancer in 2015.

The indictment last week came months after the collapse of an apparent plea agreement between prosecutors and Biden's legal team.

Hunter Biden is far from the first family member to raise headaches for a sitting president.

Neil Bush, one of president George H.W. Bush's six children, was an outside director at a failed savings and loan association that came under scrutiny of federal regulators in the 1990s. He did not face criminal charges but did agree to help settle a civil case.

Billy Carter, brother of Jimmy Carter, accepted $220,000 and registered as a paid agent of the Libyan government, earning scrutiny from a Senate committee whose members included Joe Biden, then a senator.

Meanwhile, current House Democrat Jamie Raskin in recent months has accused Republicans of hypocrisy in its Hunter Biden probes, questioning their lack of curiosity over business deals struck by Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner while they served as White House advisers to then-president Donald Trump. Shortly after Trump was voted out of office, a Kushner company received a $2 billion investment from a fund overseen by Saudi Arabia's crown prince.

"We are at a remarkable juncture for the U.S. House of Representatives," said Raskin on Wednesday. "Because this is an impeachment inquiry where no one has been able to define what criminal or constitutional offence they're looking for."