President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, agreed to a sit-down deposition before House lawmakers with an eight-page attorney letter to Capitol Hill on Friday.
Two days after lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee and the House Judiciary Committee voted to advance contempt resolutions against the president’s son, an attorney for the younger Biden said they would provide Hunter Biden for a closed-door interview.
“If you issue a new proper subpoena, now that there is a duly authorized impeachment inquiry, Mr. Biden will comply for a hearing or deposition,” Attorney Abbe David Lowell wrote. “We will accept such a subpoena on Mr. Biden’s behalf.”
The letter was submitted after Hunter Biden made a surprise appearance on Capitol Hill to capture tape for an upcoming Netflix documentary as lawmakers debated whether to hold him in contempt.
[READ: Hunter Biden Flipped Congress The Bird To Get B-Roll For His Damage-Control Documentary]
Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty to additional tax charges filed by Special Counsel David Weiss in California the next day. Months after a federal judge in Delaware derailed a sweetheart plea agreement, Weiss charged Hunter Biden with nine new tax crimes but withheld charges related to foreign influence-peddling involving his father in the White House.
Lowell spent eight pages in the Friday letter to lawmakers arguing the subpoena issued by House Republicans in November was invalid because the request focused on impeachment. House Republicans did not formally authorize an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden until mid-December.
Lowell refused lawmakers’ request for months for Hunter Biden to sit for a closed-door deposition before a public hearing.
“If, as you claim, your efforts are important and involve issues that Americans should know about, then let the light shine on these proceedings,” Lowell wrote in December.
House Oversight Chairman James Comer of Kentucky and House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio responded to Lowell’s demands that Hunter Biden be given special treatment with a public hearing and nothing else.
“Mr. Biden’s attempt to avoid sitting for a deposition pursuant to the terms of subpoenas — by offering instead to testify at a public hearing — amounts to a demand that he receive special treatment from the Committees,” Comer and Jordan said. “Mr. Biden will not succeed in attempting to dictate to the Committees how they conduct their investigation.”
On Wednesday, contempt resolutions were sent to the entire chamber.
“Hunter Biden’s willful refusal to comply with the Committees’ subpoenas is a criminal act. It constitutes contempt of Congress and warrants referral to the appropriate United States Attorney’s Office for prosecution as prescribed by law,” Comer said Wednesday. “We will not provide Hunter Biden with special treatment because of his last name.”
Financial records released by the Oversight Committee last month show Hunter Biden funneling money directly to Joe Biden as the family peddled political influence with overseas businessmen. According to investigators, the Biden family directed money through more than 20 shell companies, most of which were established while Joe Biden was vice president. The Biden family was found to have raked in upwards of $20 million from foreign oligarchs from places such as China, Russia, and Kazakhstan.
