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.
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