Efforts by House Republicans to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress appear to be in suspension following new discussions with his attorneys that could lead to the president’s son testifying in the near future.
The development follows Biden’s surprise appearance at a congressional oversight committee meeting last week during which the Republicans complained he was refusing to make himself available in defiance of their subpoena for closed-door testimony.
The panel, in parallel with the judiciary committee, voted to progress contempt resolutions to the full House anyway.
Now both resolutions are on hold as both sides seek cooperation over a new date for him to testify in the Republican-led impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden. It follows lawyers for Biden writing to the chairs of both committees, Republicans James Comer of Kentucky and Jim Jordan of Ohio, stating their subpoenas were “legally invalid” because they predated December’s House vote authorizing the impeachment push, NBC News reported.
Both chairs said they would issue new subpoenas, the network said, and were willing to recommend delaying the contempt vote if Biden “genuinely cooperated … and worked to set a date for a closed-door deposition”.
Biden had previously insisted he would be willing to testify to the committees only in open session, but his attorneys have since said they would accept new subpoenas to give evidence in private.
“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,” his lead lawyer, Abbe Lowell, wrote to Comer and Jordan.
“We will accept such a subpoena on Mr Biden’s behalf.”
Lowell did not immediately respond to a request for further comment, NBC said, but an oversight committee spokesperson’s comments to the network on Tuesday suggest negotiations have advanced.
“Following an exchange of letters between the parties on January 12 and January 14, staff for the committees and lawyers for Hunter Biden are working to schedule Hunter Biden’s appearance,” the spokesperson said.
“Negotiations are ongoing this afternoon, and in conjunction with the disruption to member travel and canceling votes, the House rules committee isn’t considering the contempt resolution today to give the attorneys additional time to reach an agreement.”
Republicans want Biden’s testimony as they look into unproven allegations of corruption involving his father, with Democrats accusing them of seeking it in private because they know there is no evidence that would implicate the president.
“We are here today because the chairman has bizarrely decided to obstruct his own investigation and is now seeking to hold Hunter Biden in contempt after he accepted the chairman’s multiple public offers to come answer the committee’s questions under oath before the American people,” the Maryland Democrat Jamie Raskin told last week’s oversight hearing.
The meeting quickly descended into farce when Biden appeared in the company of his lawyers, and Democratic members pleaded with Comer to let him testify, to no avail.
Lowell held a gaggle with reporters outside the committee room after Biden walked out just as the firebrand Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene was rising to speak.
“Republican chairs … are commandeering an unprecedented resolution to hold somebody in contempt who has offered to publicly answer all their proper questions. The question there is, what are they afraid of?” he said.
Democrats see the contempt moves against Biden, and the “baseless” impeachment inquiry against his father, as part of a wider effort to smear the president as he seeks re-election later this year.
In a separate development reported by NBC, Hunter Biden’s Hollywood attorney, Kevin Morris, is scheduled to speak with members of the House oversight, judiciary and ways and means committees for “transcribed interviews” on Thursday.
Biden pleaded not guilty to federal tax charges in Los Angeles last week, prosecutors alleging he engaged “in a four-year scheme to not pay at least $1.4m in self-assessed federal taxes he owed for tax years 2016 through 2019”.
Morris has emerged as a key figure and “fixer” in Biden’s California troubles and appeared at his side in Congress last week.
According to NBC, Morris began advising Biden in 2020 and arranged to pay about $2m outstanding tax obligations to the IRS during the following two years.
