U.S. House Republicans won’t hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress for refusing to testify before impeachment inquiry committees.
After the Oversight and Judiciary Committee passed resolutions holding Biden in contempt of Congress, President Joe Biden’s crack-smoking son finally figured out that being a Biden doesn’t mean he’s above the law. He said he will testify if the committees issue valid subpoenas.
The two committee chairmen, James Comer of Kentucky and Jim Jordan of Ohio, agreed. The vote that would have been set for today was canceled. The committees and Biden are negotiating to arrange his testimony.
Refused to Testify
Late last week, it appeared that Republicans would hold the sex and drug addict accountable for defying the committees’ two subpoenas, issued on November 8 and 9, ordering him to appear on December 13.
Instead of showing up for the testimony, Biden held an impromptu news conference at the U.S. Capitol, where he played the victim.
So last week, the two committees voted to hold him in contempt of Congress by votes of 23-14 (Justice) and 25-11 (Oversight).
Two days later, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana announced that the full House would vote this week on the contempt resolutions, which would refer the matter to the highly politicized Biden Justice Department. The House Rules Committee still had to hold a vote as well.
The votes to nail Boy Biden’s hide to the wall moved his attorney Abbe Lowell to hoist the white flag. In a letter to Comer and Jordan, he claimed the subpoenas were invalid and that Biden would comply with new, valid subpoenas.
The subpoenas issued in November were invalid, he claimed, because the impeachment inquiry against Joe Biden had not begun. He recalled the GOP’s opposition to subpoenas that Democrats issued before they began the impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump.
“As you recount in your contempt reports, in 2019, when the Democrats held the majority, they similarly issued impeachment subpoenas before the impeachment inquiry of former President Trump was authorized by a full House vote,” Lowell wrote.
Yet the GOP contempt reports “completely omit Republicans’ response to [House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s] statement and approach in 2019.”
Lowell also cited a Trump Justice Department opinion that said an impeachment probe must begin before related subpoenas can be issued.
But “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. We will accept such a subpoena on Mr. Biden’s behalf.”
Negotiations on Testimony
On Tuesday, a spokesman for the Oversight Committee told The Hill that attorneys are haggling over the details of Biden’s appearance.
“Negotiations are ongoing this afternoon, and in conjunction with the disruption to member travel and canceling votes, the House Rules Committee isn’t considering the contempt resolution today to give the attorneys additional time to reach an agreement,” the spokesman said:
A spokesperson for Jordan had previously indicated that the plan to hold Hunter Biden in contempt could change depending on developments in new talks.
“If they agree to genuinely cooperate and we can work out a deposition date, the Chairman will recommend to Leadership that we hold the floor vote on contempt in abeyance for now,” the Jordan spokesperson said Monday.
House Rules Committee Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.), though, indicated that moving on the contempt resolutions was not completely off the table.
“Should those conversations not prove successful, the Rules Committee may reconvene this week to consider those reports,” Cole said in the hearing Tuesday.
Politico observed that “near-total [GOP] unity” is needed to punish Biden for contempt. Two members, Scalise and Hal Rogers of Kentucky, aren’t in town. Scalise is undergoing treatment for multiple myeloma and won’t return to work for a month, while Rogers is recovering from a car crash.
The Contempt Resolution
The contempt resolution from the House Oversight Committee contained a detailed report about the Biden Mafia’s business activities that Hunter Biden was expected to explain.
The committees sought answers to three questions:
(1) [Whether Joe Biden] took any official action or effected any change in government policy because of money or other things of value provided to himself or his family; (2) [whether he] abused his office of public trust by providing foreign interests with access to him and his office in exchange for payments to his family or him; or (3) [whether he] abused his office of public trust by knowingly participating in a scheme to enrich himself or his family by giving foreign interests the impression that they would receive access to him and his office in exchange for payments to his family or him.
Those questions arise from Hunter Biden’s planetary business adventures and what Joe Biden did to advance them and enrich himself.
One example was the Biden-Burisma influence-peddling scheme: In 2016, then-Vice President Biden threatened to withhold $1 billion in loan guarantees to Ukraine if it did not fire a prosecutor who was investigating an energy company that had hired Hunter Biden.
A Hunter Biden business crony, Devon Archer, the resolution report says, told the committee that Biden Sr. was “the Brand” that sent “‘signals’ of power, access, and influence to enrich the Biden family from foreign sources while he served as vice president.”
With so many of the accusations against Biden related to his vice presidency, the obvious question is whether a president can be impeached for crooked dealings before he was president.
That theory has never been tested.
As for high crimes and misdemeanors Biden committed during his presidency, IRS whistleblowers claim the Justice Department obstructed a probe of Hunter Biden.
