Hunter Biden was defiant Wednesday during a closed-door deposition at the Capitol, calling a Republican impeachment inquiry into his father and the family’s business affairs a “house of cards” built on “lies” as he made facing a battery of probing questions from lawmakers.
“For over a year, your committees have hounded me in your partisan political pursuit of my father,” Hunter Biden said in an opening statement obtained by The Associated Press. He accused Republicans of trafficking in “innuendo, distortion and sensationalism” and insisted, “I did not involve my father in my affairs.”
But Republicans remained undeterred by Hunter Biden’s dismissal of their investigation during six hours of testimony. Rep. James Comer, one of the GOP chairs leading the investigation, came out Wednesday night to declare it a “great deposition,” and said it helped substantiate several evidence they had gathered so far.
Hunter Biden, left, son of President Joe Biden, arrives with attorney Abbe Lowell at the O’Neill House office building for a closed-door deposition as part of a Republican-led investigation into the Biden family, in Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday February 2. 28, 2024. Lawmakers on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee and the House Judiciary Committee are leading the investigation.
J. Scott Applewhite / AP
“But there are also some conflicting statements that I think require further review,” the Kentucky Republican said, adding that the next forum on the matter would be a public hearing with Hunter Biden at a later date.
The testimony of President Joe Biden’s son marked a decisive point for the 14-month Republican investigation into the Biden family. The investigation focused on Hunter Biden and his work overseas for clients in Ukraine, China, Romania and other countries. Republicans have long questioned whether these business dealings involved corruption and influence peddling by President Biden, particularly when he was vice president.
Yet after conducting dozens of interviews and obtaining more than 100,000 pages of documents, Republicans have yet to produce direct evidence of the president’s misconduct. Meanwhile, an FBI informant who alleged a bribery scheme involving the Bidens – a claim Republicans had repeatedly cited to justify their investigation – faces charges federal prosecutors who accuse him of fabricating the story.
Despite the stakes of their investigation, it was ultimately unclear how much useful information Republicans could extract from Hunter Biden during the deposition. He is the subject of a federal investigation and has been indicted on nine federal taxes and a firearms charge in Delaware, meaning he could refuse to answer certain questions in asserting his Fifth Amendment rights.
But by midday, Hunter Biden had not asserted those rights, according to Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., one of the members present in the deposition. Instead, Mace told reporters Wednesday that the president’s son provided “provocative and dishonest” testimony from the first hour.
The majority of Republicans remained silent as the deposition stretched into the afternoon, with Comer and Rep. Jim Jordan, the GOP chairs leading the investigation, declining to answer questions from reporters in the hallways . They both spoke about the sensitivity of a private deposition.
Democrats on the Oversight and Judiciary committees repeatedly denounced the deposition, calling it “an embarrassing spectacle where Republicans continued to debate completely meaningless points.”
“This thing is over. A referee would stop the fight if it was a boxing match. A coroner would pronounce this thing dead,” Rep. Eric Swalwell, Democrat of California, said of the ongoing impeachment inquiry.
He added that Hunter Biden “leaned in” and wasn’t afraid to answer any of the questions. “He actually challenged a number of Republicans about their baseless theories,” Swalwell said.
The task of interviewing Hunter fell primarily to Comer and Jordan. They Hunter Biden was first subpoenaed in November, demanding that he appear before lawmakers in a private setting. Biden and his lawyers refused, warning that his testimony could be leaked and selectively manipulated. They insisted he would only testify in public.
On the day of the subpoena, Hunter Biden not only snubbed lawmakers waiting for him in a courtroom, but he did so by showing up right outside the Capitol, holding a press conference where he denounced the investigation into his family.
The two sides ultimately agreed in January to a private deposition with a set of conditions. Hunter Biden’s interview was not filmed and Republicans agreed to quickly release the transcript.
Hunter is the second member of the Biden family interviewed by Republicans in recent days. Last week, they conducted an interview lasting more than eight hours with James Biden, the president’s brother. He insisted to lawmakers that Joe Biden “was never involved,” financially or otherwise, in his businesses.
Developments on the other side of the country, in Nevada, where federal prosecutors this month are the focus of the interview. indicted FBI informantAlexander Smirnov, who claimed there was a multi-million dollar corruption scheme involving the president, his son Hunter and a Ukrainian energy company. Prosecutors say in court documents that Smirnov had “extensive and extremely recent” contact with people close to Russian intelligence services.
Smirnov’s lawyers have said he is presumed innocent.
Republicans pressured the FBI last summer over the informant’s claims, demanding to see the underlying documents and ultimately releasing the unverified information to the public. This claim was cited repeatedly in letters that House Republicans sent to impeachment witnesses.
Many Republican lawmakers say they have yet to see evidence of the “high crimes and misdemeanors” required for impeachment, despite alleged efforts by Biden family members to leverage the family name to generate revenue for businesses domestically and abroad.
But Comer and Jordan remain unfazed by the series of setbacks to their landmark investigation. Jordan, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, said last week that the informant’s indictment “does not change the basic facts” that the Biden family attempted to profit from the name of family in several companies abroad.
And Comer told Fox News on Tuesday that Smirnov was never “a key part of this investigation.”
Both men have insisted over the past year that their investigation and probe focused solely on Joe Biden and what actions, if any, he took as vice president or president in benefit of his family. But at almost every turn, their investigation has focused consistently and heavily on Hunter Biden. Several lines of inquiry have been opened into Hunter’s international business affairs, his art sales, and even his personal life and intermittent struggle with addiction.
Meanwhile, Hunter Biden has no shortage of legal problems at the Capitol as he faces criminal charges in two states following a special counsel investigation. He is facing gun count charges in Delaware, alleging he broke laws prohibiting drug users from owning firearms in 2018, during which time he admitted to struggling with addiction. Special Counsel David Weiss filed suit additional fees late last year, alleging he failed to pay about $1.4 million in taxes over three years.
He pleaded not guilty in both cases.
___
Associated Press writers Stephen Groves and video journalists Nathan Ellgren and Rick Gentilo contributed to this report.
