The announcement was made by House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.). Congressional Contempt Resolution Hunter Biden did so on Monday, just weeks after his eldest son avoided testifying before the panel.
If passed, the resolution would allow House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) to “take all appropriate steps to enforce the subpoena” already issued to the 53-year-old. This includes referring him to the Department of Justice for criminal prosecution.
A House committee is scheduled to consider the bill in markup session Wednesday before taking a final vote to send it to the floor.
Comer, 51, said in a report accompanying the resolution that the president's son violated federal law by missing a Dec. 13 committee meeting. The committee chairman said it was a “key element” of the Republican impeachment inquiry into Hunter's father, President Biden. .
Hunter Biden, 53, appeared at the Capitol on the same day with attorney Abby Lowell, who is representing him against federal charges of illegal gun possession and tax evasion, and made an impassioned plea for sympathy.
“For six years, I've been the target of a relentless Trump attack machine screaming, 'Where's Hunter?' Well, here's my answer, 'I'm here,'” the younger Biden told Congress. He spoke to a large group of reporters gathered outside the Capitol.
“Let me be as clear as possible: My father has no financial involvement in my business, as a lawyer, as a director of Burisma, in any partnership with a private Chinese businessman, or in my home. I wasn't involved in investing in any of them.'' That's true overseas, and of course not as an artist. ”
Lowell previously said Comer “used closed session sessions to manipulate and even distort the facts and misinform the public” and told his client to attend public hearings rather than testify in private. They requested permission to hold the event.
In a statement Friday, Oversight Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) echoed those concerns, saying, “There is no precedent for holding private citizens in contempt of Congress for offering to testify under oath in public. No,” he said. on a date selected by the committee. ”
“Chairman Comer does not want Hunter Biden to testify publicly, just as he has refused to release the transcripts of more than a dozen interviews that have become a hallmark of this investigation. “Because we want to continue our carefully curated distortions, outright lies, and ludicrous conspiracy theories,” Raskin said.
“However, all the facts and evidence show that no wrongdoing by President Biden is an impeachable offense.”
Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon was arrested in November 2021 by Washington, D.C., prosecutor Matthew Graves for refusing to cooperate with a House of Representatives special committee despite being a civilian. During the Capitol riot, he was charged with contempt of Congress and convicted the following year.
Mr. Bannon is currently appealing that decision, as is fellow Trump administration official Peter Navarro, who was also found guilty of failing to appear before the special committee on January 6th.
Republican lawmakers are questioning whether Joe Biden has ever taken any official action to influence U.S. policy or abused the public trust as a result of money paid by foreigners to him or his family. is being investigated.
Reports and bank records obtained by the House Oversight Committee show that Hunter Biden, James Biden, and other members of the Biden family have It has been shown that he received funds from related parties.
It is also said that then-Vice President Biden met with officials from most of these countries during the 2020 presidential campaign and since taking office in January 2021, despite repeatedly denying such meetings. There's evidence.
The FBI informant also said Mykola Zlochevsky, the owner of Ukrainian gas company Burisma Holdings, paid Hunter and Joe Biden $5 million each to fire prosecutors investigating the company. However, this claim has not been independently substantiated.
Biden, 81, boasted after leaving President Obama that he pressured then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to fire prosecutor Viktor Shokin in exchange for a $1 billion U.S. loan guarantee. .
Congressional Democrats say the firing was motivated by concerns among U.S. and European officials that Mr. Shokin was corrupt, but Mr. Hunter's former business partner Devon Archer said last year that Mr. He disputed this in an interview.
Archer told former Fox News host Tucker Carlson in an interview in August that prosecutors were considered a “threat” to Burisma at the time.
In its report on the contempt resolution, Comer said his committee found “significant evidence suggesting that President Biden knew about, participated in, and profited from his son's foreign business interests.” “We had amassed evidence that the committee intended to question Mr. Biden about it.” his affidavit. ”
“Mr. Biden's failure to respond to the committee's subpoena is a criminal act,” he added. “This constitutes a contempt of Congress and, as required by law, warrants referral to the appropriate United States attorney's office for prosecution.”
