Jan. 10 (UPI) — House Republicans’ effort to pass a resolution to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress got off to a rocky start on Wednesday when he made a surprise appearance at a committee mockup session.
Hunter Biden, appeared on Capitol Hill with attorneys Abbe Lowell and Kevin Morris, as the House Oversight Committee was weighing the resolution to hold him in contempt but left shortly after the hearing began.
The House Judiciary Committee was also holding a hearing on whether he should be held in contempt for holding a press conference outside the Capitol on Dec. 13 instead of complying with a subpoena ordering him to testify privately as part of an impeachment inquiry into his father, President Joe Biden.
In a statement to reporters after leaving the hearing, Lowell asserted that Hunter Biden is “a private citizen” while accusing Republicans of attempting to “use him as a surrogate to attack his father.”
“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,” Lowell said. “The question here is, what are they afraid of?”
While Hunter Biden was present for the hearing Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., said that he “should be arrested right here, right now, and go straight to jail.”
“You are the epitome of white privilege, coming into the Oversight Committee, spitting in our face, ignoring a Congressional subpoena to be deposed,” Mace told Biden. “What are you afraid of? You have no balls to come up in here.”
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green, R-Ga., who was set to speak as Hunter Biden left the room called him a “coward.”
Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-N.Y., sought a show of hands for the committee to vote on the spot to receive public testimony from Biden, but only Democrats participated.
Hunter Biden replied, “yes” when a reporter asked if he would testify if asked by the House on Wednesday.
House Republicans said that Hunter Biden’s testimony is key to their impeachment investigation into his father for enriching himself during his years as vice president through his son’s alleged overseas influence peddling.
House Oversight Committee Chair Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., publicly released a resolution on Monday saying that Hunter Biden’s “decision to defy the committee’s subpoenas and deliver prepared remarks prevents the committee from carrying out its Constitutional oversight function and its impeachment inquiry,” and that his “refusal to comply with the committee’s subpoena is a criminal act.”
