Unter Biden appears for deposition in D.C.
WASHINGTON — Hunter Biden appeared Wednesday on Capitol Hill for a closeddoor deposition with lawmakers, a critical moment for Republicans as their impeachment inquiry into his father and the family’s business affairs teeters on the brink of collapse.
“I am here today to provide the committees with the one uncontestable fact that should end the false premise of this inquiry: I did not involve my father in my business,” Hunter Biden said in an opening statement obtained by The Associated Press.
The deposition could mark a decisive point for the 14-month Republican investigation into the Biden family, which has centered on Hunter Biden and his overseas work for clients in Ukraine, China, Romania and other countries. Repub- licans have long questioned whether those business deal- ings involved corruption and influence peddling by Presi- dent Joe Biden, particularly when he was vice president.
Yet after conducting doz- ens of interviews and obtain- ing more than 100,000 pages of documents, Republicans have yet to produce direct evidence of misconduct by the president. Meanwhile, an FBI informant who alleged a bribery scheme involving the Bidens — a claim Republi- cans had cited repeatedly to justify their probe — is facing charges from federal pros- ecutors who accuse him of fabricating the story.
Despite the stakes of their investigation, it remains unclear how much useful information Republicans will be able to extract from Hunter Biden. He is under
federal investigation and has been indicted on nine federal tax charges and a fire- arm charge in Delaware, which means he could refuse to answer some questions by asserting his Fifth Amend- ment rights.
The task of interview- ing Hunter falls primarily to Reps. James Comer and Jim Jordan, the GOP chair- men leading the impeach- ment investigation. They first subpoenaed Hunter Biden in November, demanding that he appear before lawmakers in a private set- ting. Biden and his attorneys refused, warning that his testimony could be selec- tively leaked and manip- ulated. They insisted that Hunter Biden would only testify in public.
On the day of the sub- poena, Hunter Biden not only snubbed lawmakers waiting for him in a hearing room — he did also while appearing right outside the Capitol, holding a press conference where he denounced the investigation into his family.
Both sides agreed in Jan- uary to a private deposition with a set of conditions. The interview with Hunter Biden will not be filmed and Repub- licans have agreed to quickly
release the transcript.
“Our committees have the opportunity to depose Hunter Biden, a key witness in our impeachment inquiry of President Joe Biden, about this record of evidence,” Comer, chair of the House Oversight Committee, said in a statement to The Associated Press. “This deposition is not the conclusion of the impeachment inquiry. There are more subpoenas and witness interviews to come.”
Hunter will be the second member of the Biden family questioned by Republicans in recent days. They conducted a more than eighthour interview last week with James Biden, the president’s brother. He insisted to lawmakers that Joe Biden has “never had any involvement,” financially or otherwise, in his business ventures.
Looming large over the interview are developments on the other side of the country in Nevada, where federal prosecutors this month indicted an FBI informant, Alexander Smirnov, who said there was a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme involving the president, his son Hunter and a Ukrainian energy company.