Two US House of Representatives committees on Wednesday recommended that Hunter Biden, US President Joe Biden’s son, be held in criminal contempt of US Congress for refusing to comply with a subpoena in the impeachment inquiry into his father.
The votes, 23 to 14 in the Judiciary Committee and 25 to 21 in the Oversight Committee, came after Hunter Biden made an unannounced appearance on the US Capitol grounds to attend the proceedings.
Once approved, the measures are to go to the full House of Representatives to vote on whether to ask the US Department of Justice to prosecute the younger Biden for defying his congressional subpoena.
Photo: Reuters
The most dramatic moment of the day came early on when the president’s son, accompanied by his lawyer Abbe Lowell, entered the Oversight Committee hearing room. The move, which caught Republican lawmakers off guard, highlighted Hunter Biden’s aggressive tactics to counter House of Representatives investigations into his business practices.
With the president’s son sitting in a chair typically reserved for the public, Republican Representative Nancy Mace asked: “Who bribed Hunter Biden to be here today?”
She called Hunter Biden’s appearance “the epitome of white privilege” and questioned his manhood for refusing to testify to the panel behind closed doors.
The two committees last month subpoenaed Hunter Biden to appear for a closed-door deposition. He came to US Capitol Hill that time as well, but said he would only testify in public.
“I think that Hunter Biden should be arrested right here, right now and go straight to jail,” Mace said.
Democrats, and some Republicans, urged calm as Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer struggled to regain control of the hearing. Republican Representative Andy Biggs called for “decorum and courtesy” and said people in the room should not “act like a bunch of nimrods.”
Democratic Representative Jared Moskowitz responded by asking Republicans if they would allow Hunter Biden to speak publicly at the hearing.
He received a chilly reception from Republican representatives when he asked them to raise their hands if they supported the idea.
Hunter Biden and Lowell left several minutes into the hearing, prompting Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene to criticize the president’s son for being “smug” and avoiding committee oversight.
Lowell afterward raised his previous offer for Hunter Biden to testify publicly to US Congress, rather than give a private deposition.
“The Republican chairs today then are commandeering an unprecedented resolution to hold someone in contempt, who has offered to publicly answer all their proper questions. The question there is, what are they afraid of?” Lowell told reporters.
Back inside, Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin rebuked Greene for previously showing sexually explicit pictures of the president’s son in the committee room.
Hunter Biden is facing two federal indictments. One accuses him of failing to pay at least US$1.4 million in taxes owed from 2016 to 2019, and allegedly filing false returns in 2018. According to that indictment, he allegedly spent millions of dollars on a drug-fueled life featuring escorts, fast cars and luxury hotels, much of it while he was in the grips of addiction.
The other indictment accuses him of lying about his drug use on a federal form he had to fill out to purchase a handgun.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
RSS