Hunter Biden's Lawyers Confirm Willingness to Testify on Capitol Hill in December
President's son, Hunter Biden, agrees to testify before House Oversight Committee on December 13th His lawyers insist on a public hearing This comes as part of the committee's ongoing inquiry into Hunter's actions CNN obtained the letter from Hunter's legal team
Hunter Biden's legal team has informed the House Oversight Committee that he is prepared to testify in their investigation on December 13, but insists that it must be done publicly. In a letter obtained by CNN, Hunter Biden's lawyers expressed concerns about the transparency of closed-door sessions and urged for the proceedings to be open to the public. They emphasized the importance of shedding light on the issues at hand and allowing the public to have access to the facts.
CNN has contacted the House Oversight Committee for their response. This month, the committee, led by Republicans, issued subpoenas for Hunter and James Biden, the son and brother of President Joe Biden. This sets the stage for a highly anticipated confrontation as House Republicans strive to determine if the president has engaged in impeachable conduct related to his family's overseas business transactions. So far, they have not reached the high threshold required for impeachment.
This is the first time the panel has issued subpoenas directly targeting members of the Biden family. House Republicans on the Oversight and Judiciary committees are prioritizing a series of high-profile interviews as they near the end of their impeachment inquiry into the president. In addition to the Biden family, the oversight committee has also subpoenaed an assistant US attorney involved in Hunter's criminal case, following allegations of political interference in the case by whistleblowers within the Internal Revenue Service. However, both a high-ranking IRS official and the special counsel investigating Hunter, David Weiss, have contradicted the whistleblowers' claims in congressional testimony.
Hunter's attorney, Abbe Lowell, strongly denounced the Republican-led investigation into Hunter, labeling it as a "political stunt" filled with "discredited conspiracies about the Biden family." The letter criticized House Republicans' impeachment inquiry, which focuses on connections between the president and Hunter's business dealings.
The Republicans' claims of "corruption" by the Bidens remain unproven, and their attempts to link Joe Biden to his son's financial gains in China and other countries have largely failed.
"After nearly eleven months of investigation, the reviews of your findings, including from some of your colleagues, have consistently found them to be unproductive," wrote Hunter Biden's lawyers.
"Despite almost a year of effort, your Committee has been unable to link our client's business dealings to his father," Lowell stated in his response to the subpoena issued on Tuesday. He suggested that the committee should instead focus on the business activities of former President Donald Trump and his family.
The Republican who issued the subpoena, House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, has stated that Hunter Biden's testimony is crucial in determining the extent to which "Joe Biden knew, was involved, and benefited from his family's influence peddling schemes." This story has been revised to include new details.
CNNs Holmes Lybrand and Marshall Cohen contributed to this report.
