Hunter Biden has dismissed allegations made by House Republicans about himself and his father, President Joe Biden, calling them "MAGA-motivated conspiracies" in his opening statement ahead of a closed-door deposition.
"For more than a year, your committees have hunted me in your partisan political pursuit of my dad," reads Hunter Biden's opening statement, shared with Newsweek by his legal team. "You have trafficked in innuendo, distortion, and sensationalism—all the while ignoring the clear and convincing evidence staring you in the face.
"You do not have evidence to support the baseless and MAGA-motivated conspiracies about my father because there isn't any."
The Context
Hunter Biden is appearing today before Republicans on the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees to answer questions relating to claims that his father, President Biden, personally benefited from and influenced his foreign business deals in China and Ukraine while vice president.
Republicans' attempts to link the father-son relationship to a broader impeachment inquiry into the president failed earlier this month, with Hunter's attorneys and Democrats saying that so-called evidence has not backed up the allegations.
What We Know
Hunter previously defied a congressional subpoena to appear for a closed-door deposition in front of House Republicans as part of the impeachment proceedings, saying he would testify in a public hearing to fully expose the GOP's "baseless" inquiry.
In January, as House Republicans intended to hold him in contempt for defying that subpoena, Hunter and his lawyers briefly attended a hearing in person only to walk out during the proceedings as Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene was given the floor.
Alexander Smirnov, a former FBI informant, was indicted last week by a federal grand jury for allegedly making false claims and producing false records—including that Joe and Hunter Biden were paid $5 million by Ukrainian energy company Burisma.
Prosecutors alleged that Smirnov, viewed by Republicans as an important witness in the impeachment inquiry, regurgitated the apparent lie following a meeting with Russian intelligence officials.
The charges were announced by Special Counsel David Weiss, who has charged Hunter with tax fraud and firearm violations separately.
James Biden, the president's younger brother, recently testified as part of the inquiry.
In his opening statement on February 21, James Biden said that Republicans' claims associated with improper business dealings between himself and Hunter were "either mistaken, ill-informed or flat-out lying."
Hunter, 54, has been embroiled in legal challenges for years due to his tax history and history of drug abuse. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Views
Republican Representative James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said Wednesday morning, prior to Hunter's appearance, that the Oversight and Judiciary committees "have unearthed substantial evidence of President Biden and his family's corruption."
Comer claimed that the Bidens helped create 20 shell companies, mostly during Joe Biden's time as vice president, allegedly helping business associates in countries including China, Ukraine, Russia, Romania and Kazakhstan make some $30 million.
House Democrats have refuted such allegations, saying that Republicans have spent the past five years feeding "lies" to the American public as part of a broader "smear cycle" paid for by American taxpayers—in essence to aid political campaigns.
"In Chairmen [Jim] Jordan and Comer's ongoing effort to use congressional resources and millions of taxpayer dollars to attack the Biden family, fourteen months of investigation, more than 100,000 pages of documents, and testimony from a dozen witnesses have disproven all of Chairmen Jordan and Comer's allegations against the President," a spokesperson for Democrats on the House Oversight Committee told Newsweek on Wednesday.
Democrats point to the lack of purported evidence brought forward by Republicans' own witnesses, including Jason Galanis, James Biden, Tony Bobulinski, Karen Tramontano, Joseph Langston, Eric Schwerin, Rob Walker, Mervyn Yan, Kevin Morris, Georges Berges, Carol Fox and Devon Archer.
Hunter Biden arrived for the deposition just before 10 a.m. alongside his attorney Abbe Lowell. Neither spoke to reporters, according to ABC News.
What's Next
No matter what occurs behind closed doors on Wednesday, Comer has made it clear that his committee will continue to investigate the president's son and any ties with the president himself—even despite calls from Democrats to conclude the impeachment investigation following the indictment of Smirnov.
"Our committees have the opportunity to depose Hunter Biden, a key witness in our impeachment inquiry of President Joe Biden, about this record of evidence," Comer said in a statement.
"This deposition is not the conclusion of the impeachment inquiry. There are more subpoenas and witness interviews to come. We will continue to follow the facts to inform legislative reforms to federal ethics laws and determine whether articles of impeachment are warranted."
Update 2/28/24, 11:17 a.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.
Update 2/28/24, 12:09 p.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Nick Mordowanec is a Newsweek reporter based in Michigan. His focus is reporting on Ukraine and Russia, along with social ... Read more
