Hunter Biden declined to appear before the House Oversight Committee for a public hearing set for March 20 as Republicans continue the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.
The younger Biden’s legal counsel sent a letter to Chairman James Comer (R-KY) on Wednesday alerting the top Republican that he would not be attending the public hearing. His lawyer blamed the president’s son’s absence, in part, on a court hearing in California — but also on Republicans’ “planned-for-media” event.
“To begin, even if that hearing was a legitimate exercise of congressional authority, neither Mr. Biden nor I can attend because of a court hearing the very next day in California,” Abbe David Lowell, Hunter Biden’s attorney, wrote in the letter provided to the Washington Examiner. “The scheduling conflict is the least of the issues, however.”
“Your blatant planned-for-media event is not a proper proceeding but an obvious attempt to throw a Hail Mary pass after the game has ended,” Lowell added.
House Republicans invited Hunter Biden at the beginning of March to appear as a witness at an impeachment hearing scheduled for March 20, called “Influence Peddling: Examining Joe Biden’s Abuse of Public Office.” The younger Biden and his counsel have repeatedly called for a public hearing after refusing to appear for a closed-door testimony at the end of last year.
Hunter Biden angered Republicans on the Oversight Committee further when he showed up to his contempt of Congress hearing and left in the middle of debate. He eventually agreed to a closed-door deposition in late February.
In the letter sent Wednesday, Lowell said he was surprised by the committee’s “hasty request” for the president’s son to appear at a hearing.
“After that six-plus hour deposition on February 28, 2024, along with the realization that your inquiry was based on a patchwork of conspiracies spun by convicted liars and a charged Russian spy, I thought even you would recognize your baseless impeachment proceeding was dead,” the lawyer wrote.
Lowell went on to blast the Republicans’ impeachment inquiry, claiming any evidence is coming from “taking a word, phrase, or line out of context in a few communications usually written by other people than” Hunter Biden.
“Far from the ‘smoking guns’ you claim, the ‘evidence’ does not amount even to droplets from a water pistol,” Lowell wrote.
Comer said in a statement on Wednesday that the House Oversight Committee has “called Hunter Biden’s bluff.”
“Hunter Biden for months stated he wanted a public hearing, but now that one has been offered alongside his business associates that he worked with for years, he is refusing to come,” the chairman said.
“Next week’s hearing with Hunter Biden and his associates is moving forward and we fully expect Hunter Biden to participate,” Comer said. “The American people demand the truth and accountability for the Bidens’ corruption.”
Three of Hunter Biden’s business associates, Devon Archer, Jason Galanis, and Tony Bobulinski, were also invited to the hearing. All three, like the first son, have previously appeared before the committee to give closed-door testimony.
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House Republicans launched an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden in December last year, a move that the GOP had hoped would assist them in enforcing subpoenas and requests for documents related to what they call an “alleged criminal scheme” on behalf of the Biden family and foreign entities.
There is little indication at this stage that the inquiry will lead to a vote to impeach the president, however, as Republicans have turned up little to no evidence that Joe Biden profited from the business pursuits of his son and his brother James Biden.