House prepares contempt of Congress resolution for Hunter Biden

The House Judiciary Committee will mark up a resolution next week to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress after he defied a subpoena by failing to appear for a deposition.

Biden, the president’s son, was due to appear last month before investigators from a trio of committees investigating his business dealings. Instead, he spoke on the Senate lawn reiterating his willingness to speak with the panels only in a public setting.

Lawmakers said last month they would hold Biden in contempt of Congress. 

“We’re going to move forward with contempt proceedings. … There’s a process we have to follow, but we plan to do that,” House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said Dec. 13.

After the Judiciary Committee votes on the resolution, it must be weighed before the full House.

Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, speaks during a news conference outside the Capitol, Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2023, in Washington. Hunter Biden on Wednesday lashed out at Republican investigators who have been digging into his business dealings, insisting outside the Capitol he will only testify before a congressional committee in public. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)

Biden attorney Abbe Lowell issued a statement Friday accusing the Republican committee chairs of continuing “to play politics by seeking an unprecedented contempt motion against someone who has from the first request offered to answer all their proper questions.  What are they afraid of?”

While a public rebuke of a sitting president’s son in itself would be extraordinary, a contempt of Congress resolution largely serves as a recommendation to the Justice Department, which can choose whether to bring charges.

That’s a risky proposition for Hunter Biden, who is already facing felony tax charges in California as well as charges in Delaware related to buying a weapon without disclosing drug use.

But in his press conference on the Senate lawn, he nodded to an offer by House Oversight and Accountability Chair James Comer (R-Ky.), who prior to the subpoena said he would “drop everything” if Biden wanted to testify publicly, and accused the GOP of reneging on that claim.

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He also addressed the crux of the investigation into his father.

“For six years, I’ve been the target of the unrelenting Trump attack machine shouting. ‘Where’s Hunter?’” Biden said in a statement to reporters. “Well, here’s my answer. I am here.”

“Let me state as clearly as I can: My father was not financially involved in my business. Not as a practicing lawyer. Not as a board member of Burisma. Not in my partnership with a Chinese private businessman, not my investment at all nor abroad, and certainly not as an artist,” he said, running through a number of key aspects of the GOP probes.

“There’s no evidence to support the allegations that my father was financially involved in my business, because it did not happen,” Biden added.

The Justice Department in recent years has acted on just half of the contempt of Congress resolutions that have been referred by the House.

It pursued and scored convictions against both one-time White House strategist Steve Bannon and White House adviser Peter Navarro.

But it declined to bring cases against Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows or communications guru Dan Scavino. 

“Hunter Biden’s willful refusal to comply with our subpoenas constitutes contempt of Congress and warrants referral to the appropriate United States Attorney’s Office for prosecution. We will not provide him with special treatment because of his last name,” Comer and Jordan said in a joint statement.

Democrats hit Comer on Friday for failing to uphold an earlier offer to let Biden testify publicly.

“Instead of taking yes for an answer, Chairman Comer has now obstructed his own hapless investigation by denying Hunter Biden the opportunity to answer all the Committee’s questions in front of the American people and the world,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, said in a statement.

“Chairman Comer does not want Hunter Biden to testify in public, just as he has refused to publicly release over a dozen interview transcripts, because he wants to keep up the carefully curated distortions, blatant lies, and laughable conspiracy theories that have marked this investigation.  However, the facts and the evidence all show no wrongdoing and no impeachable offense by President Biden.”

Updated at 12:45 p.m. ET