U.S. President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, defied a congressional order on Wednesday to testify behind closed doors about overseas business dealings that netted him millions of dollars in income, while declaring that his father had nothing to do with his financial affairs.
As the Republican-controlled House of Representatives moved toward a vote to formally open an impeachment investigation of the U.S. leader, his 53-year-old son told a news conference outside the U.S. Capitol, "There is no evidence to support the allegations that my father was financially involved in my business, because it did not happen.”
The younger Biden had been subpoenaed to testify privately on Wednesday before the House Oversight Committee, to face questions from Republican lawmakers alleging that he funneled some of the $20 million he was allegedly paid from business ventures in Ukraine and China in the last several years to his father and other Biden family members.
The panel threatened to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress if he did not show up. But he defied the subpoena, contending that Republicans looking to derail his father’s 2024 presidential reelection campaign would “cherry pick” his testimony.
He said he feared they would release only those parts of it they considered favorable to their contention that the elder Biden, while he was vice president and before he became president in 2021, reaped the benefits of his son’s overseas deals.
Hunter Biden insisted he was ready to testify publicly on Wednesday, but the Republicans had already refused that offer, saying that he should be treated no differently than other witnesses who have testified behind closed doors.
The Republican lawmakers, with the whole-hearted support of former President Donald Trump, himself running to reclaim the White House in 2024, could vote as soon as later Wednesday to formally open an impeachment investigation of the elder Biden, which would allow them to subpoena more Biden family financial records.
Thus far, the president’s political opponents have failed to uncover evidence that Joe Biden benefited from Hunter Biden’s overseas business dealings, which included a lucrative stint on the board of the Ukrainian energy firm Burisma and investment in Chinese ventures.
The younger Biden, an admitted but now reformed crack cocaine user, faces his own legal difficulties. He has been accused of lying on a 2018 gun purchase application form that he was not a drug user and, in a separate case, charged with nine tax offenses alleging that he schemed to avoid paying about $1.4 million in taxes over a three-year period. He says he has since repaid all that he owes.
At his Capitol Hill news conference, Hunter Biden said, "I'm here today to make sure the House committee's illegitimate investigations of my family do not proceed on distortions, manipulated evidence, and lies. I'm here today to acknowledge I have made mistakes in my life and wasted opportunities. … For that I am responsible."
He said that three Republican lawmakers — James Comer, Jim Jordan and Jason Smith — leading the investigation of what they have characterized as the “Biden crime family” and “their colleagues have distorted the facts. ... There is no fairness or decency in what these Republicans are doing. They have lied over and over. ... They have displayed naked photos of me during an Oversight hearing."
The elder Biden has denied any involvement in his son’s business affairs and dismissed the Republican impeachment investigation as politically motivated. Republicans have pointed to frequent calls from his son to his father as Hunter Biden dined with business associates at overseas restaurants, which the younger Biden apparently intended as an effort to show he had access to power in Washington.
If convicted, Hunter Biden faces up to 17 years in prison. Absent a plea deal with prosecutors, he could stand trial next year amid his father’s political campaign.
Any Hunter Biden trials could coincide with four criminal cases Trump is facing, including a trial set to start March 4 in Washington accusing the former president of illegally conspiring to upend his 2020 loss to Joe Biden.
Trump has denied all 91 charges in the four indictments.
