Table Of Content
- House Republicans to move forward on holding Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress
- Breaking News Alerts
- How the House GOP’s Biden impeachment effort fell apart
- Foreign governments spent millions at Trump businesses while he held office, Democrats say
- Hunter Biden indicted on 9 tax charges, adding to gun charges in special counsel probe
"We planned to question Hunter Biden about this record of evidence, but he blatantly defied two lawful subpoenas, choosing to read a prepared statement outside of the Capitol instead of appearing for testimony as required," they said. "Hunter Biden’s willful refusal to comply with our subpoenas constitutes contempt of Congress and warrants referral to the appropriate United States Attorney’s Office for prosecution. We will not provide him with special treatment because of his last name." WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans plan to move forward next week with holding Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress after the president's son defied a congressional subpoena to appear for a private deposition last month. While Republicans say their inquiry is ultimately focused on the president, they have taken particular interest in Hunter Biden and his overseas business dealings, from which they accuse the president of personally benefiting. Republicans have also focused a large part of their investigation on whistleblower allegations of interference in the long-running Justice Department investigation into the younger Biden's taxes and his gun use. WASHINGTON — House Republicans plan to move forward next week with holding Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress after the president's son defied a congressional subpoena to appear for a private deposition last month.
House Republicans to move forward on holding Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress
While there are three Republican chairmen co-leading the inquiry, Comer has arguably quarterbacked the most controversial pillar of the probe – millions of dollars’ worth of business dealings by the Biden family. Through that work, Comer has made sweeping claims that the president was involved in bribery and influence-peddling schemes that compromised his job. Without providing evidence, promising it will come Thursday, Comer said the president was looped in on actions by Hunter that he called "influence peddling" and described it as lobbying foreign governments without registering, as required by law. "Hunter Biden's willful refusal to comply with our subpoenas constitutes contempt of Congress and warrants referral to the appropriate United States Attorney's Office for prosecution," said Reps. James Comer, R-Ky., and Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, in a joint statement. The House Oversight, Judiciary and Ways and Means committees wrote to Morris in November to request his testimony, noting that news reports indicated he had lent Hunter Biden more than $2 million and that other testimony they obtained said he made tax payments on behalf of Biden. They also pointed to Biden’s initial plea deal that fell apart in August, which identified a third party that had made tax payments on his behalf.
Breaking News Alerts
In a fiery response, Biden defense attorney Abbe Lowell accused special counsel David Weiss of “bowing to Republican pressure” in the case. Control of the House is unclear, with the results in several races still not final, but Republicans are expected to hold a slim majority, a much different outcome than top GOP leaders forecasted in a "red wave" that failed to materialize. Comer admitted he expected his party would win more seats, but as for his planned investigations he said nothing has changed — "full steam ahead." Separately, Hunter Biden on Thursday pleaded not guilty to nine federal tax charges in federal court in California. Prosecutors allege the president's son engaged in a years-long scheme to avoid paying more than $1 million in taxes.
How the House GOP’s Biden impeachment effort fell apart
Still, the GOP-led House voted along party lines last month to formalize an impeachment inquiry into the president. As part of their probe, led by the Oversight, Judiciary and Ways and Means panels, Comer and Jordan requested the White House provide information about Mr. Biden's alleged involvement in his son's defiance of the congressional subpoena. The Oversight and Judiciary Committees demanded the president's son appear for a private deposition on Dec. 13, which he declined to do.
Foreign governments spent millions at Trump businesses while he held office, Democrats say
House Republicans ready contempt of Congress charges against Hunter Biden for defying a subpoena - The Associated Press
House Republicans ready contempt of Congress charges against Hunter Biden for defying a subpoena.
Posted: Fri, 05 Jan 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]
Washington — House Republicans said they would move forward with a floor vote next week on holding Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress unless he agrees to comply with their subpoenas and sit for a closed-door deposition. GOP lawmakers have been investigating Hunter Biden's business dealings for nearly a year and have accused Mr. Biden of profiting from his son and brother's overseas work. But the Republicans have not produced any evidence of wrongdoing by the president or that he benefited from his family's foreign business ventures. Comer and Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan said in a statement Friday that Hunter Biden's refusal to comply with their subpoenas for testimony constitutes contempt of Congress and warrants referral to federal prosecutors. Morris received a formal request — though not a subpoena — for a transcribed interview in November as part of the committees’ impeachment inquiry into the president. And the markup will be held the day before Hunter Biden is scheduled to be arraigned in Los Angeles on the nine federal tax-related charges stemming from a separate special counsel investigation into his finances and other matters.
Speaker McCarthy directs House to open an impeachment inquiry into President Biden
Embarking on a high-stakes GOP investigation into the president and his family in an election year with a divided, paper-thin majority was always going to be an uphill climb. Comer and his fellow top Republicans leading the probe have consistently been caught between the far-right wing’s early demands for impeachment and skeptical Republicans in vulnerable districts, all amid Democrats’ relentless efforts to dismantle their work. However, the impeachment investigation and flurry of coverage of the claims made by Mr. Comer and other Republicans against the president may still have served its intended purpose if that purpose was more political than practical. “The Committees will continue to investigate President Biden’s abuse of public office and will outline findings in a final report with recommendations,” the representative said.
Though the Oversight Committee still promises that a formal impeachment is on the table, it’s not clear that they have the votes to pass an impeachment resolution. Mr. Comer eventually responded to this critical blow to his case by saying he would make criminal referrals to the Justice Department and requesting that the president testify in front of his committee. The Kentucky Republican compared Hunter Biden's business dealings to those of Michael Flynn, the retired Army lieutenant general who served briefly as President Trump's national security advisor. Flynn had to resign after it was revealed he communicated with the Russian ambassador during the transition period between the Obama and Trump presidencies.
Hunter Biden indicted on 9 tax charges, adding to gun charges in special counsel probe
The House Oversight and Judiciary Committees both subpoenaed Hunter Biden to sit for depositions, but did so before the full House voted to formally authorize an impeachment inquiry into President Biden last month. The Republicans who lead the House Oversight and Accountability Committee and the Judiciary Committee announced Friday that they will hold votes on contempt charges against Hunter Biden as the GOP moves into the final stages of its impeachment inquiry. The Republicans who lead the House Oversight and Accountability Committee and the Judiciary Committee announced Friday that they will hold votes on contempt charges against Hunter Biden as the GOP moves into the final stages of its impeachment inquiry. WASHINGTON — House Republicans on the Judiciary and Oversight committees are prepared to move forward with a resolution to hold the president’s son Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress for defying their subpoena to appear for a closed-door deposition.
Republicans charged ahead, insisting they had a closed-door deposition with Hunter Biden to prepare for, even though they had repeatedly put those unverified claims at the center of their case. Less than a month later, the House removed McCarthy as speaker, leading to three weeks of chaos and paralysis, which put the inquiry on hold at a moment when the pressure to deliver was building. The expert GOP witnesses testified they supported the opening of the inquiry, but the takeaway became their acknowledgement that Republicans did not yet have the evidence to prove the accusations they were leveling. Shortly after former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy unilaterally launched the inquiry, Comer held his first hearing in September, hoping to deliver a splashy opening salvo to set the tone for the investigation and bring to the forefront months of behind-the-scenes work. “Chairman Comer has done extraordinary work leading a fair investigation and carefully following the facts where they lead,” Johnson, who has worked to tamp down concerns that the investigation has not moved fast enough, said in a statement to CNN. Washington (CNN) — House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer was eager to take the reins of a high-stakes investigation into President Joe Biden and his family, seen as central to the House Republican agenda – a coveted perch that brought the added benefit of elevating his national profile.
Three of Nevada’s congressional members are born and raised in Nevada, while the other three moved to the Silver State. They gave the White House until Wednesday to turn over documents regarding Hunter Biden's scheduled deposition. "Instead of taking yes for an answer, Chairman Comer has now obstructed his own hapless investigation by denying Hunter Biden the opportunity to answer all the Committee's questions in front of the American people and the world," Raskin said.
“It needs to be a high bar, and if we are contemplating that on the president … I don’t think we are there yet,” GOP Rep. Doug LaMalfa reflected to CNN when asked whether he believed Republicans had uncovered evidence of an impeachable offense by the president. In February, Republicans were dealt a massive blow when it was announced that the individual who brought forward the bribery allegations about the president and his son memorialized in an unverified FBI document – which Republicans had been warned not to bank on – was charged with lying about the Bidens. At the same time, Republicans finally went after their top witness, Hunter Biden, who was at the center of their allegations about his father. Between the 2020 Gallup survey and the 2024 Gallup survey, Mr. Biden’s perception as being trustworthy slid the most among independent voters. Gallup also reported that perceptions of President Trump as trustworthy declined to 28 percent among independent voters in 2024 from 31 percent of independents in 2020. Whether or not Republicans are able to muster the votes for a formal impeachment vote in the House, a Senate trial would likely be dismissed, as is expected to happen with the impeachment of the Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas.
Rebecca is a producer and off-air reporter covering Congress for NBC News, managing coverage of the House.
Instead of quietly building a case, Comer was quick to make bold accusations on friendly right-wing cable news platforms, sources said, which frustrated some members. But a series of missteps has left the probe stalled and without clear consensus on what a successful conclusion looks like, according to interviews with more than a dozen Republican lawmakers and sources. Asked whether any of his Republican peers had privately voiced frustrations to him about the inquiry, Comer grew defensive and took a swipe at CNN, echoing complaints sources say he has made privately to colleagues about the media coverage.
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