In a recent letter to an attorney for Hunter Biden, who is a son of the current president, GOP leaders in Congress including Reps. James Comer (Ky.) from the Oversight Committee and Jim Jordan (Ohio) from the Judiciary Committee demand the presidential son’s appearance for a closed-door deposition per the terms of prior Republican subpoenas.
Hunter and his legal team had been pushing instead for the younger Biden appearing in public to answer committee members’ questions. If Hunter refuses to go along with their demands, Comer and Jordan threatened contempt of Congress proceedings against him, which in theory could end up spurring a criminal prosecution — though precedent also suggests it’s perfectly possible the effort would sputter out.
Jordan, though, has his own history of outright subpoena defiance that he’s ignoring, considering he never complied with subpoena demands from the House committee that investigated January 6 and circumstances leading up to it. Jordan is known to have communicated with Donald Trump on the day of the riot.
“Ohio man who defied Congressional subpoena and outright refused to testify sends letter to witness eager to testify that threatens contempt,” Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) remarked on social media. “The @HouseGOP: When your investigation is a complete failure, then might as well distract by holding a cooperative witness in contempt!” Then a private citizen, Goldman helped handle the first impeachment against Trump.
Besides scrutinizing just Hunter himself, Republicans are also trying to tie his allegedly dubious activities to the president in the context of a slowly advancing impeachment inquiry that so far has not actually been formalized with a vote by Congress. No evidence has emerged conclusively and directly tying the president to the younger Biden’s business activities. Republicans have tried to make indirect connections because the eventual president received money from family members of his who were also separately engaged elsewhere, but those funds to the older Biden have evidently clear origins, like repayment for a loan he gave his brother.
Ohio man who defied Congressional subpoena and outright refused to testify sends letter to witness eager to testify that threatens contempt.
The @HouseGOP: When your investigation is a complete failure, then might as well distract by holding a cooperative witness in contempt! https://t.co/kU8qHNStv2
— Daniel Goldman (@danielsgoldman) December 7, 2023
