House Republicans will begin the process of holding Hunter Biden in criminal contempt of Congress on Wednesday for not complying with a congressional subpoena to sit for a closed-door deposition last month.
Both the House Oversight and House Judiciary committees, which subpoenaed the president’s son for his testimony as part of the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, will hold separate markups of the contempt resolution.
The allegations at the core of the Republican-led investigation stem from unproven claims that the president was involved in or financially benefited from his son’s foreign business dealings, making the president’s son a crucial witness for their probe.
Instead of sitting for his deposition, Hunter Biden held a news conference outside the Capitol and has said he will only testify in a public setting. House Republicans maintained they were willing to hold a public hearing with the president’s son, but only after he sat for a private interview. After the younger Biden did not appear for his deposition, House Oversight Chair James Comer and House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan issued a joint statement announcing they would begin contempt proceedings.
The pair of markups on Wednesday kick off a lengthy process and underscore that the Republican effort to obtain testimony from the president’s son will remain difficult. If the contempt resolution passes out of committee, it is referred to the full House for a contempt vote.
If an eventual House floor vote succeeds, the Department of Justice, which is already pursuing two criminal cases against the president’s son, would have to determine whether to prosecute the president’s son for evading a congressional subpoena.
White House spokesperson for oversight and investigations Ian Sams issued a statement ahead of the committee meetings, dismissing “baseless attacks” against…
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