Hunter Biden showed up unannounced to a House hearing led by Republicans to hold him in contempt.
The son of the president made the surprise appearance on Wednesday morning at Capitol Hill, creating a tense moment with the House GOP who has been seeking his testimony in connection to their impeachment proceedings investigating President Joe Biden.
The younger Mr Biden didn’t respond to questions and was accompanied by his lawyers Abbe Lowell and Kevin Morris, according to NBC News.
House Republicans were planning to vote on recommending that Mr Biden, 53, be charged with contempt of Congress in both the Oversight and Judiciary committees.
Mr Biden left the hearing room shortly before 10.30am, just as Georgia GOP Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene began speaking, calling him a “coward”.
Neither a representative for Mr Biden nor the White House immediately responded to a query from The Independent on whether President Biden was aware of his son’s intention to visit Capitol Hill on Wednesday.
“We have offered to work with the House committees to see what and how relevant information to any legitimate inquiry could be provided. Our first five offers were ignored,” Mr Lowell told the press outside the hearing room. “And then in November, they issued a subpoena for a behind-closed-doors deposition, a tactic that the Republicans have repeatedly misused in their political crusade to selectively leak and mischaracterize what witnesses have said.”
“In the House last fall, Chairman Comer made an explicit offer that people like Hunter … had … the option to attend a deposition or a public hearing, whichever they chose – Hunter chose a hearing where Republicans could not distort, manipulate, or misuse that testimony,” Mr Lowell added.
“Honouring and then ignoring that invitation, and proving once again, that they cared little about the truth and wanted only to, quote, ‘move the needle of political support’, which was a quote Chairman Comer confessed was his true purpose,” he argued.
“The Republican chairs today then are commandeering an unprecedented resolution to hold someone in contempt, who has offered to publicly answer all their proper questions. The question there is, what are they afraid of?” Mr Lowell asked.
Mr Biden is facing two separate criminal indictments and during the Oversight hearing on Wednesday morning, South Carolina GOP Rep Nancy Mace argued that he be arrested then and there.
“Hunter Biden you are too afraid for a deposition, and I still think you are today,” she said.
“Play stupid games, win stupid prizes,” she added in a reference to Taylor Swift.
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