The attorney for President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, says his client will appear for a public hearing or deposition if presented with legally valid subpoenas issued as part of the House’s impeachment inquiry into the elder Mr Biden, according to a letter reviewed by The Independent.
In the letter, which was sent to House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer and House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan on Friday, Biden’s attorney Abbe Lowell said that the November subpoenas previously served on his client have no validity because they were issued before the full House of Representatives voted to authorise an impeachment inquiry into President Biden.
Mr Lowell, a former counsel to the House of Representatives, cited a 2020 Office of Legal Counsel opinion issued during the then-Democratic-led House’s impeachment probe into former president Donald Trump, which stated that the chamber “must provide express authorization before any committee may exercise compulsory powers in an impeachment investigation”.
He warned Mr Comer and Mr Jordan that their effort to have the full House approve a contempt citation against his client won’t hold water because the House had not yet approved the impeachment probe when his client was served with the subpoenas at issue.
He also pointed out that both GOP representatives had cried foul when the House investigated Mr Trump and issued subpoenas to White House aides before formally approving that inquiry.
“I write to make you aware (if you are not already) that your subpoenas were and are legally invalid and cannot form a legal basis to proceed with your misdirected and impermissible contempt resolution,” Mr Lowell wrote. “And you two, of all people, should know that is the case.”
The move comes after the younger Biden appeared at a House Oversight Committee hearing unannounced on Wednesday as Republicans teed up the markup of legislation to hold Mr Biden in contempt of Congress.
At the time, Mr Lowell told reporters that his client was fully willing to appear in a public setting, rather than in a closed-door session that would allow the GOP to withhold a full transcript of his testimony from the public, and cited multiple instances in which Mr Comer had publicly said that Mr Biden could choose the format to testify in front of the committee.
“You proceeded with a contempt process, erroneously claiming Mr Biden was seeking ‘special treatment’, despite Mr Comer’s repeated and public statements about witnesses’ and Mr Biden’s ability to testify at a deposition or hearing at their choice,” Mr Lowell wrote.
Republicans had hoped to have Mr Biden give evidence in their long-running inquiry into what they describe as improper conduct on behalf of the president during his tenure as vice president. But Mr Lowell called out the GOP for not making known the reasons behind their refusal to grant Mr Biden a public forum.
“You have not explained why you are not interested in transparency and having the American people witness the full and complete testimony of Mr Biden at a public hearing,” he wrote, adding later that because the House has voted to open an impeachment inquiry, Mr Biden would be willing to testify under certain circumstances.
“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,” he said, though he added in a footnoted caveat that the deposition format he would likely agree to is a hybrid public format suggested by Maryland Representative Glenn Ivey on 10 January.
In a statement, the Oversight panel’s ranking member, Representative Jamie Raskin, said Mr Lowell’s offer means Hunter Biden is now offering the GOP “exactly what they have been demanding this week” during their contempt proceedings.
“It is time for Chairs Comer and Jordan to call off this truly absurd and wasteful contempt proceeding and finally take yes for an answer, which Chair Jordan already said he would ‘certainly’ do,” he said.
