Table Of Content
- To pass Ukraine aid, 'Reagan Republican' leaders in Congress navigated a party transformed by Trump
- GOP wrestles with how to end investigation
- House Republicans ready contempt of Congress charges against Hunter Biden over a subpoena he defied
- House GOP preps contempt charges against Hunter Biden
- Breaking News Alerts
- Gaetz attended 2017 party, woman's statement says
Hunter Biden's role in a Ukrainian energy company, Burisma, was discussed in then President Trump's first impeachment probe — and it came up in Trump's phone call in September 2019 to the newly elected Ukrainian president. President Trump pressed for an investigation into his then 2020 presidential rival, Joe Biden, and his son, Hunter, in his discussion with President Zelensky about additional aid for Ukraine. The House Oversight, Judiciary and Ways and Means committees did not comment on Morris’ planned testimony. The tension spilled into public view last week when Comer and the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, Rep. Jamie Raskin, got into a sparring match over the status of the investigation at an unrelated hearing. After a failed first attempt and a narrow victory, and with articles quickly dismissed by the Democratic-controlled Senate, Republicans realized the prospects of impeaching the president, seen internally as a much heavier lift, were increasingly unlikely.
To pass Ukraine aid, 'Reagan Republican' leaders in Congress navigated a party transformed by Trump
House committees advance contempt of Congress resolutions for Hunter Biden - CBS News
House committees advance contempt of Congress resolutions for Hunter Biden.
Posted: Wed, 10 Jan 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]
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. The hearings planned for Wednesday on contempt of Congress will come a day before Hunter Biden is scheduled to make his first court appearance on tax charges filed by a special counsel in Los Angeles. He is facing three felony and six misdemeanor counts, including filing a false return, tax evasion, failure to file and failure to pay. So far, GOP lawmakers have failed to uncover evidence directly implicating Democratic President Joe Biden in any wrongdoing.
GOP wrestles with how to end investigation
Comer and Jordan said in a statement that they have "significant evidence suggesting President Biden knew of, participated in, and benefitted from his family cashing in on the Biden name." Meanwhile, Comer single-handedly invited the president to testify at a hearing, but he rescinded the invitation after the White House declined, pivoting instead to asking for documents and written answers. The October election of Johnson, who was fully supportive of the investigation, provided a glimmer of hope. Despite the internal criticism, Comer still maintains the confidence of Speaker Mike Johnson and his leadership team. Comer’s co-leads, House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan and House Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith, are also fully behind the work. Some in the House GOP, granted the anonymity to speak freely, said they felt he often overpromised and underdelivered, with one GOP source who worked on the investigation telling CNN that people wished Comer had “reined in” his rhetoric.
House Republicans ready contempt of Congress charges against Hunter Biden over a subpoena he defied
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.
MORE: House Oversight Committee subpoenas Hunter Biden, president's brother James Biden
He accused Republicans of "distorting the facts" and selectively releasing information from prior closed-door interviews with others appearing before House committees. The House has stopped moving forward with a resolution to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress after Biden’s lawyers and the House Judiciary and Oversight committees renewed their conversations about scheduling a date for the president’s son to appear and testify. James Biden, who was also subpoenaed by the committees, remains an important witness target for the impeachment inquiry. Unlike their interactions with Hunter’s legal team, a House Oversight Committee spokesperson told NBC News that James Biden’s legal team has remained in communication and the panel is hopeful that they can work out an agreement for him to appear.
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.
"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.
Gaetz attended 2017 party, woman's statement says
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.
Impeachment inquiry gets off to a rocky start
A committee source said the timing was coincidental — Jan. 10 is the first full day the House will be in session this year. In an announcement first shared with NBC News, the Oversight Committee said it will hold a markup on Jan. 10 at 10 a.m. Before the markup, both committees will release a report outlining their rationale for holding Hunter Biden in contempt. But even without cameras, the president’s son failed to deliver the smoking gun Republicans were hoping for, leaving the inquiry at a standstill. Even GOP Rep. Darrell Issa remarked after the first hour of questioning that Hunter Biden was prepared for the interview.
Hunter Biden's team and House Republicans are in a showdown over his cooperation with the GOP's wide-ranging impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. The committees' chairmen, Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., and Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, have said they believe that Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings were the result of influence peddling based on his father’s political status. But Republicans have yet to present any hard evidence that the president personally benefited from his son’s businesses.
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.
Instead of agreeing to the terms of the subpoena, Hunter Biden’s legal team responded that he was willing to answer questions but only in a public setting, arguing that he believed that Republicans would selectively leak or misrepresent his testimony. The committee did not agree to those terms and warned that if he did not appear on the scheduled date he would be held in contempt. Washington — House Republicans said Friday that they will move forward next week with an effort to hold Hunter Biden, President Biden's son, in contempt of Congress after he refused to comply with a congressional subpoena for closed-door testimony. Witness after witness brought in for closed-door interviews in January and February built a pile of testimony that refuted core tenants of the inquiry. Abbe Lowell, Hunter Biden's attorney, argued those subpoenas were invalid since they came before the House voted to approve the inquiry. In a letter on Friday, he told Reps. James Comer and Jim Jordan, the respective committee chairs, that his client would now comply with a new subpoena for testimony.
Committee staff have not had any further conversations with the Hunter Biden legal team about his failure to comply with the subpoenas, the committees said. The impeachment inquiry, which has been underway for months, was formally approved along partisan lines by the full House of Representatives right before the Congress left for the holiday recess. And I think some of the earlier statements got a little more aspirational than the evidence really allowed,” one of the GOP lawmakers told CNN.
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.
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. GOP Rep. Anna Paulina Luna – who serves on the House Oversight Committee and supports impeachment – has told Comer she believes the panel should have issued subpoenas faster. She also believes the committee should have held the president’s son, Hunter Biden, in contempt of Congress the moment he defied his initial subpoena for closed-door testimony, instead of engaging in a long back-and-forth – a sentiment shared by many of her colleagues. For months, Republicans have pursued an impeachment inquiry seeking to tie the Democratic president to his son's business dealings. House Republicans have been investigating Hunter Biden's business dealings and have claimed, without providing direct evidence, that the president benefited financially from his ventures, allegations the White House has denied.
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.
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