Hunter Biden, son of U.S. President Joe Biden, is seen as he makes a surprise appearance at a House Oversight Committee markup and meeting to vote on whether to hold Biden in contempt of Congress for failing to respond to a request to testify to the House last month, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., January 10, 2024.
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters
An attorney for Hunter Biden said Friday that the president’s son will comply with congressional subpoenas for a deposition with Republican investigators if they issue a new one — a stark shift from his previous demand for a public hearing of his testimony.
The latest move in Biden’s bitter back-and-forth with GOP House members came two days after they passed resolutions urging that he be found in contempt of Congress for defying their prior subpoenas.
Those subpoenas ordered Biden to sit for a closed-door deposition as part of an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.
The full House of Representatives is poised to vote on the contempt finding next week.
Hunter Biden’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, argued in a letter to two House Republican committee chairmen that their previous subpoenas were legally invalid.
“If you issue a new proper subpoena, now that there is a duly authorized impeachment inquiry, Mr. Biden will comply for a hearing or deposition,” Lowell wrote in the letter.
“We will accept such a subpoena on Mr. Biden’s behalf.”
Lowell’s offer came at the end of an eight-page letter criticizing House Oversight Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., and Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, for passing the contempt resolutions in spite of Hunter Biden’s insistence that he would testify publicly.
“You proceeded with a contempt process, erroneously claiming Mr. Biden was seeking ‘special treatment,’ despite Mr. Comer’s repeated and public statements about witnesses’ and Mr. Biden’s ability to testify at a deposition or hearing at their choice,” Lowell wrote.
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