Biden clarifies subpoena refusal
Former vice president says he sees ‘no legal basis’ to comply
IOWA CITY, Iowa — Joe Biden, elaborating on his remarks a day earlier that he would not comply with a subpoena to testify in President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate, wrote on Twitter on Saturday that there would not be “any legal basis” for such a subpoena.
Biden wrote that over the course of his decadeslong political career, he had “always complied with a lawful order,” and in his two terms as vice president, his office “cooperated with legitimate congressional oversight requests.”
In the first of three tweets on the subject Saturday morning, Biden wrote that he wanted to “clarify” comments he made Friday when he met with the editorial board of The Des Moines Register, whose endorsement in the Iowa caucuses is highly sought after by presidential candidates.
Biden was asked by the Register whether he stood by previous comments that he would not comply with a subpoena to testify in the impeachment trial. He said he did and explained that complying with a subpoena and testifying would effectively allow Trump to shift attention onto Biden and away from the president’s own conduct.
“The reason I wouldn’t is because it’s all designed to deal with Trump doing what he’s done his whole life: trying to take the focus off him,” Biden told the newspaper. “The issue is not what I did.”
On Saturday, Biden elaborated on Twitter: “I am just not going to pretend that there is any legal basis for Republican subpoenas for my testimony in the impeachment trial. That is the point I was making yesterday and I reiterate: this impeachment is about Trump’s conduct, not mine.”
The House impeached Trump this month citing his campaign to pressure Ukraine to investigate Biden and his son, Hunter Biden. In the aftermath of Trump’s impeachment, the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and the minority leader, Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., have been in a standoff over proceedings for a trial, in part because of Schumer’s request to call Trump administration officials for testimony at an impeachment trial. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has said she will not formally send the articles of impeachment to the upper chamber until she has assurances that the trial will be conducted fairly.