Hunter Biden testifies in Republican House impeachment inquiry

President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, has arrived at a House of Representatives office building for a closed-door deposition after he was subpoenaed by House Republicans for their impeachment inquiry into his father.

It’s unclear whether Mr Biden, a Yale-educated attorney and former lobbyist, will answer all of the questions he will be asked when he appears before the House Oversight Committee in closed session.

In a statement to reporters upon his arrival at the Capitol complex Wednesday morning, he said he would only testify publicly as he explained he had come there “to make sure that the House committee’s illegitimate investigations of my family did not proceed on distortions, manipulated evidence and lies” and “to acknowledge that I’ve made mistakes in my life and wasted opportunities and privileges I was afforded”.

“For that I’m responsible for that. I’m accountable for that. I’m making amends,” he said.

He added that he was also at the Capitol “to correct how the Maga right” was portraying him for political purposes and said the GOP does not want an “open process where Americans can see their tactics”.

“For six years, Maga Republicans, including members of the House committees who are in a closed door session session right now have [attacked] my character, invaded my privacy, attacked my wife and my children, and my family, and my friends,” he continued. “They have ridiculed my struggle with addiction. They belittle my recovery and they have tried to dehumanise me, all to embarrass and damage my father, who has devoted his entire public life to service”.

“For six years I have been the target of the unrelenting Trump attack machine shouting, where’s Hunter? Well, here’s my answer — I am here”.

His attorney, Abbe Lowell, has indicated that the president’s son is willing to give evidence before the GOP-led panel, which has been conducting a long-running and thus far fruitless probe into the Biden family in an effort to uncover any alleged wrongdoing on the part of President Biden. But he has said his client would only testify in an open hearing, citing the GOP committee’s penchant for selectively leaking transcripts of testimony in ways that bolster their preferred narratives.

Mr Biden confirmed these concerns in his statement, slamming the GOP panel for having “having distorted the facts by cherry picking lines from a bank statement, manipulating texts I sent, editing the testimony of my friends and former business partners, and misstating personal information that was stolen from me”.

“There is no fairness or decency in what these Republicans are doing,” he said. “They have lied over and over about every aspect of my personal and professional life, so much so that their lives have become the false facts believed by too many people”.

He also categorically denied that his father had ever been involved in any of his business ventures, “not as a practising lawyer, not as a board member of Burisma, not in my partnership with a Chinese private businessman, not in my investments at home nor abroad, and certainly not as an artist”.

“There is no evidence to support the allegations that my father was financially involved in my business, because it did not happen,” he said.

It’s possible that Mr Biden may decline to answer questions under his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, as he has been charged with nine tax offences in California, where he lives, and additional gun-related crimes in Delaware.

His conduct is the focus of another long-running probe that began under the Trump administration, run by Delaware US Attorney David Weiss. Mr Weiss, who brought the two federal indictments against Mr Biden in Delaware and California, was appointed as a special counsel by Attorney General Merrick Garland this past summer.

Mr Lowell has said he is concerned ahead of the planned deposition that comments by Mr Biden made in private may be taken out of context. House Republicans have countered by arguing that filming the proceeding and releasing the transcript would prevent that.

But there’s no guarantee that Mr Comer, the committee chair, would authorise the release of either video or a full transcript, particularly if it would not help his panel advance thus-far unsupported claims that President Biden acted illegally or improperly.

One Democratic member of the committee, Representative Jared Moskowitz of Florida, pointed out the contradiction in Mr Comer’s disdain for transparency as he entered the committee’s office suite while members were waiting for Mr Biden.

“Donald Trump has asked for cameras in the courtroom. I don’t know why the chairman is so scared of Hunter Biden,” he said.

The deposition comes amid deepening legal woes for Mr Biden.

The most recent indictment includes allegations that Mr Biden, 53, didn’t pay at least $1.4m in federal taxes that he owed between 2016 and 2019.

The fresh legal filing comes after a plea deal fell apart in July which was supposed to see Mr Biden admitting to some tax and firearm offences in exchange for avoiding prison time.

The initial indictment came in September when prosecutors revealed three counts of lying on an application form to buy a handgun in 2018.

Congressional Republicans have used Mr Biden’s legal problems, past drug use, and foreign business dealings to open an impeachment inquiry into the president, despite no evidence supporting any links to the elder Biden.

Nine fresh tax charges were filed against Mr Biden on 7 December. The legal filing states that he “engaged in a four-year scheme to not pay at least $1.4m in self-assessed federal taxes he owed for tax years 2016 through 2019”.

The second indictment against Mr Biden includes allegations that he didn’t file or pay his taxes and that he also evaded assessment, with prosecutors claiming that he instead used the money to pay for “drugs, escorts and girlfriends, luxury hotels and rental properties, exotic cars, clothing, and other items of a personal nature”.

Mr Biden “individually received more than $7 million in total gross income” between 2016 and October 2020, the indictment states. But Mr Biden “willfully failed to pay his 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019 taxes on time, despite having access to funds to pay some or all of these taxes”, the prosecutors add in the legal filing.

After getting a loan from his personal lawyer, Mr Biden paid all his due taxes and fines in 2020.

Hunter Biden appeared on the Moby Pod podcast, published on 8 December.

“They’re trying to destroy a presidency. And so it’s not about me, and in their most base way, what they’re trying to do is they’re trying to kill me, knowing that it will be a pain greater than my father could be able to handle,” he said about the Republican attacks on him and his family.

Mr Biden met the musician while they both were in addiction recovery and Moby attended a 2021 art show hosted by Mr Biden, Vanity Fair reported at the time.

But even Fox News has admitted there’s no evidence of wrongdoing by the president.

“House Republicans are still trying to connect—they’re trying to trace money that originated overseas and went into Hunter Biden’s accounts [and] to accounts controlled by Joe Biden,” Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy recently said on Fox Business.

The reporter added that it’s “worth noting in this latest 56-page indictment, the only Biden accused of wrongdoing is Hunter”.

During the broadcast last week, Doocy said, “The House Oversight Committee has been at this for years, and they have so far not been able to provide any concrete evidence that Joe Biden personally profited from his son Hunter’s overseas business, but they are going to try again with this impeachment inquiry”.