WASHINGTON — Hunter Biden forcefully rejected allegations from House Republicans that President Joe Biden was inappropriately involved in his business dealings as he sat down with lawmakers as part of their wide-ranging investigation impeachment of the president and his family.
“I did not involve my father in my affairs,” his prepared opening statement read. “You have no evidence to support the baseless, MAGA-motivated conspiracies about my father because there is none.”
Hunter Biden appeared before investigators Wednesday morning on Capitol Hill for a private, closed-door deposition as Republicans allege Joe Biden influenced U.S. foreign policy to benefit his family financially. Hunter Biden’s business ventures played a central role in Accusations from House Republicans.
To date, investigators have yet to find evidence directly linking Joe Biden to his family’s affairs. Hunter Biden’s long-awaited testimony before investigators could be the last chance for House Republicans to shore up their case against the president, but lawmakers leading the investigation pushed back on that characterization, saying the probe several months would not end after Hunter Biden’s deposition. .
Comer, while the deposition was on break, told reporters that the investigation would now “move to the next phase” and that his committee would hold a public hearing with Hunter Biden. His public testimony will “hopefully clear up some discrepancies” in what he told investigators Wednesday.
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Speaking to reporters ahead of Hunter Biden’s testimony, Comer reiterated allegations that the president’s family sought to sell his last name as a “brand” as part of “family influence peddling schemes.”
House Republicans questioned Joe Biden’s brother, James Biden, in a closed-door interview last week in much-anticipated testimony, but it largely failed and he denied the president’s involvement in his business dealings. Hunter Biden should do the same and defend his father against any accusations of wrongdoing.
“Republicans took my communications out of context, relied on documents that were altered, and cherry-picked excerpts from financial and other documents to misrepresent what actually happened,” his statement continued. “If you try to do this again today, my answers will reveal your tactics and demonstrate the truth that my father was never involved in any of my businesses.”
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, said Wednesday morning that after Hunter Biden’s testimony, “this investigation is complete at this point” and “there is no really has nothing left to pursue.”
Why is Hunter Biden testifying?
House Republicans have long sought to question Hunter Biden about his foreign business dealings as part of their impeachment inquiry into the president and had lengthy exchanges with Hunter Biden and his lawyers last year over the matter. of his testimony.
Comer and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, subpoenaed Hunter Biden last year, forcing him to testify before investigating committees last year, but he openly ignored the subpoena, instead, he delivered impassioned remarks outside the Capitol, fiercely defending his father against accusations of wrongdoing on the day he was ordered to testify.
Hunter Biden and his representatives insisted on testifying in public, fearing that investigators would selectively release parts of the transcript and distort his testimony if he testified in private. House Republicans however, argued that House Democrats allegedly disrupted the order of a public hearing.
Following Hunter Biden’s refusal of the subpoena, House Republicans moved to hold him in contempt of Congress, but both parties later agreed that Hunter Biden would first testify before investigators in a private setting, then would speak before the committees at a public hearing.
What are the House Republicans’ arguments against Joe and Hunter Biden?
House Republicans have long alleged that Joe Biden influenced U.S. foreign policy to help his family’s business while profiting financially from those deals.
The House Oversight and Judiciary committees have interviewed several business associates of the Biden family, but the vast majority of them have told lawmakers that the president was never directly involved in any of their dealings.
For example, Devon Archer, one of Hunter Biden’s former longtime business partners, told Republicans last year that Hunter Biden occasionally put the president on speakerphone during business conversations, but noted that Joe Biden only exchanged pleasantries over the phone, such as small talk about fishing and weather report.
However, one witness, Tony Bobulinski, a former associate of James Biden, told investigators that Joe Biden “facilitated” his brother’s dealings with a now-bankrupt Chinese energy conglomerate.
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But Bobulinski’s testimony and claims were contradicted by several other witnesses, including another former business partner of Hunter Biden, Rob Walker. James Biden and Democrats also rejected Bobulinski’s accusations, arguing that he was still unhappy about being left out of the family’s business deals.
“This has been a comedy of errors from the beginning,” Raskin told reporters Wednesday morning.
House Republicans are expected to question Hunter Biden about various aspects of his business work, including his seat on the board of a Ukrainian energy company, his dealings with companies associated with the Chinese Communist Party and his art and art gallery dealer.
Republicans grapple with fallout from indictment of key source
Democrats are almost sure to bring up the indictment of Alexander Smirnov, an FBI informant who was recently indicted for allegedly lying about Joe Biden and Hunter Biden’s involvement in Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company.
Before Smirnov’s indictment and after his arrest, House Republicans presented the FBI’s Form FD-1023 – a document used to record information from confidential human sources – as credible evidence supporting their allegations of wrongdoing by the president. In the form, Smirnov claimed that Joe Biden and Hunter Biden were involved in a bribery scheme with Burisma.
But since his arrest, Republicans have downplayed Smirnov’s indictment and argued that their investigation, which is broad in scope, did not rely on Form FD-1023. Regardless, Smirnov’s indictment significantly undermined Republicans’ arguments that Joe Biden was inappropriately involved in Hunter Biden’s business dealings.
Following Smirnov’s indictment, Raskin called on Republicans to immediately end the impeachment inquiry, arguing that they had no reason to continue the investigation.
