Hunter Biden turns down invite to attend public impeachment hearing — after initially requesting one
First son Hunter Biden rejected an invitation Wednesday to take part in a public hearing of the impeachment inquiry into his father — after previously saying he would only answer questions before the cameras.
Attorney Abbe Lowell admonished House GOP efforts to probe influence-peddling by the first family as a “carnival side-show,” writing in a letter to House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) that the scheduled March 20 hearing “is not a proper proceeding but an obvious attempt to throw a Hail Mary pass after the game has ended” as well as an “attempt to resuscitate your Conference’s moribund inquiry with a made-for-right-wing-media, circus act.”
Republicans had invited the 54-year-old Hunter to appear alongside his former business associates Devon Archer, Tony Bobulinski and Jason Galanis.
The scandal-plagued first son sat for a closed-door interview on Feb. 28 that lasted well over six hours after a weeks-long battle for his deposition.
Hunter had skipped a scheduled Dec. 13 appearance in favor of giving an impromptu on-camera statement ripping Republicans and insisting father Joe had no involvement in his overseas business interests.
At the time, the younger Biden’s legal team had asked for a public hearing, only for Republicans to insist on the closed-door interview taking place first.
“The House Oversight Committee has called Hunter Biden’s bluff,” Comer said in a statement. “Hunter Biden for months stated he wanted a public hearing, but now that one has been offered alongside his business associates that he worked with for years, he is refusing to come.”
“Next week’s hearing with Hunter Biden and his associates is moving forward and we fully expect Hunter Biden to participate. The American people demand the truth and accountability for the Bidens’ corruption.”
In his letter, Lowell blasted the first son’s former associates as “discredited” witnesses.
Archer and Galanis are facing or serving prison time in connection with a scheme to defraud a Native American tribe.
Hunter’s attorney also complained that Comer’s request came “with no prior communication.”
“I must confess my surprise by your hasty request. After that six-plus hour deposition on February 28, 2024, along with the realization that your inquiry was based on a patchwork of conspiracies spun by convicted liars and a charged Russian spy, I thought even you would recognize your baseless impeachment proceeding was dead,” he said.
Lowell and congressional Democrats have seized on the Justice Department’s indictment last month of former FBI informant Alexander Smirnov, who is accused of spreading a false claim that Joe and Hunter Biden received $5 million apiece from Burisma Holdings owner Mykola Zlochevsky in exchange for helping to oust Ukraine’s former Prosecutor-General Viktor Shokin.
Hunter’s defense team has used the revelations about Smirnov in a bid to quash a tax evasion indictment the first son faces in Southern California
The ex-informant and Hunter Biden have both pleaded not guilty to the charges against them.