House Republicans Demand White House Hand Over Hunter Biden Communication
KEY FACTS
In a letter to White House counsel Edward Siskel, House Oversight Committee chair Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) and House Judiciary Committee chair Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said the committees are “investigating whether sufficient grounds exist” to draft a formal impeachment against Biden, including whether the president “engaged in a conspiracy to obstruct a proceeding of Congress” by assisting his son defied two congressional subpoena requests.
Hunter Biden refused to appear for a deposition earlier this month that the committees had requested in subpoenas.
The House Republicans, in their letter, cite a press conference Hunter Biden held on Dec. 13, the day he was slated to testify in a closed-door meeting, when he instead dismissed the investigations as “illegitimate,” and also referred to White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre’s response in a Dec. 13 White House press briefing, when she told a reporter “the president was certainly familiar with what his son was going to say” at that press conference.
Comer and Jordan argued in the letter Jean-Pierre’s response in that press briefing “suggests” the president “had some amount of knowledge” that his son would “defy two congressional subpoenas.”
Those committees are also seeking “documents and communications sent or received” by the Biden administration regarding the president’s statement earlier this month on his family’s business associates, when Joe Biden denied claims he interacted with his son’s foreign business associates.
CONTRA
In a press conference on Dec. 13—the date Hunter Biden was called on to appear in a closed-door deposition—the president’s son said he would not testify before the House Oversight Committee unless the hearing was held publicly, arguing the investigation should be an “open process” to “expose their baseless inquiry.” The younger Biden told reporters his father was not “financially involved in” his business, and attacked “MAGA Republicans” for having “impugned my character, invaded my privacy, attacked my wife, my children, my family and my friends.”
TANGENT
Later that day, the House formalized an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden in a 221-212 vote along party lines, a procedural step that lays out a path for the House committees’ efforts to impeach the president. That vote, however, does not mean the House will formally vote to impeach Biden, or that the House would have enough votes to impeach him, though some Republicans have said a formal vote could come early in the new year. Even if the House did impeach Biden, the Democrat-led Senate—which requires a two-thirds vote to convict a president—would likely acquit him.
KEY BACKGROUND
Hunter Biden has become a primary target in Republican circles following a bombshell New York Post report in 2020 that found a laptop Biden allegedly owned and dropped off at a Delaware computer repair shop contained emails appearing to suggest his father had contact with Hunter Biden’s Ukrainian business partners during Joe Biden’s time as vice president. Since gaining control of the House in January, House Republicans have launched multiple investigations into Hunter Biden’s finances, though those probes have yet to unearth smoking gun evidence tying the president to his son’s business associates, while the White House has denied those claims. Hunter Biden’s former business partner Devon Archer was also interviewed in that process, though he denied allegations Joe Biden talked with Hunter Biden’s business associates. Hunter BIden was also indicted on separate tax evasion charges in California earlier this month and pleaded not guilty in October to a misdemeanor gun possession charge in Delaware.
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