Republican House members leading the impeachment inquiry against President Joe Biden are posing new questions about whether the president or other members of the Biden administration coordinated with the president’s son, Hunter Biden, as the younger Biden defied a congressional subpoena earlier this month.
In a letter to White House Counsel Edward Siskel, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) questioned whether President Biden “corruptly sought to influence or obstruct the Committees’ proceeding by preventing, discouraging, or dissuading his son from complying with the Committees’ subpoenas.”
House Republicans had issued a subpoena for Hunter Biden to appear for a closed-door deposition on Dec. 13. The request came as Republicans have been investigating the degree to which President Biden may have participated or otherwise leveraged his political connections to benefit his family’s various business dealings over the years.
Ahead of his deposition date, the president’s son insisted he would only testify in a public setting, as opposed to the closed-door deposition for which he’d been subpoenaed. Republicans had said the president’s son could appear for a later public hearing after first appearing at their closed-door deposition.
On the scheduled deposition day, the president’s son appeared for a press conference on Capitol Hill where he insisted that his father was “not financially involved” in his business dealings and denounced the Republican impeachment inquiry as an effort to “dehumanize” him and “embarrass” his father. Following the press conference, the president’s son departed Capitol Hill without appearing for the deposition.
At an official press conference later on the afternoon of Dec. 13, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that President Biden “was certainly familiar with what his son was going to say.” Those comments have prompted renewed Republican scrutiny.
“In light of this evidence, the fact that the president had advanced awareness that Mr. Biden would defy the Committees’ subpoenas raises a troubling new question that we must examine: whether the president corruptly sought to influence or obstruct the Committees’ proceeding by preventing, discouraging, or dissuading his son from complying with the Committees’ subpoenas,” Mr. Comer and Mr. Jordan’s Wednesday letter to the White House counsel reads. “Such conduct could constitute an impeachable offense.”
The Republican lawmakers called on the Biden White House to turn over all documents or communications it had about Mr. Biden’s Dec. 13 deposition, including communications the White House had with the president’s son and other members of Mr. Biden’s legal team. Mr. Jordan and Mr. Comer also asked the White House for any documents or communications it had about comments President Biden made at a Dec. 6 White House press event, in which he denied having involvement in his family’s business dealings and called such accusations a “bunch of lies.”
An obstruction charge could provide an added justification for impeaching President Biden as some Republicans have expressed skepticism about the impeachment case. Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) said in a recent interview that he believes a president can only be impeached for wrongful actions he took while he was in “the current office he holds,” whereas much of the current House impeachment inquiry is focused on President Biden’s actions from 2009 to 2016, when he was vice president, and from 2017 to 2020, when he was out of office. The possible obstruction offense Mr. Jordan and Mr. Comer described, on the other hand, falls within the Biden presidency.
NTD News has reached out to the White House for comment about the new Republican angle in the ongoing impeachment inquiry but did not receive a response by press time.
NTD News also reached out to the offices of Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), the ranking members of the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees respectively. Neither Congressman was available for comment by press time on Wednesday.
House Republicans have already initiated contempt proceedings against the president’s son for defying their subpoena for a Dec. 13 closed-door deposition.
Mr. Raskin had defended the president’s son’s decision to choose not to appear for the Dec. 13 deposition, arguing a public hearing would have been sufficient and Republicans simply “cannot take yes for an answer.”
Mr. Nadler also offered justification for the president’s son’s choice to defy the Congressional subpoena, claiming the Republican side had misrepresented the testimony of past witnesses in their impeachment inquiry.
“Hunter Biden is properly concerned that what he said would be distorted, and, you know, only certain things released,” Mr. Nadler told NTD News at the time. “He said he’s willing to testify publicly.”
