WASHINGTON — First son Hunter Biden made a shameless appeal for public sympathy outside the Capitol on Wednesday — skipping a transcribed interview with the House Oversight Committee under threat of being held in contempt.
“For six years, I have been the target of the Trump attack machine that has been relentlessly shouting, ‘Where’s Hunter?’ Well, here’s my answer, ‘I’m here,’” said the younger Biden, 53.
“Let me state as clearly as I can: my father is not financially involved in my business, not as a practicing lawyer, not as a Burisma board member, not in my partnership with a Chinese private businessman, not in my investments at home. nor abroad, and certainly not as an artist.”
President Biden’s son had received a subpoena to be interviewed by the Oversight Committee in private at 9:30 a.m. Instead, he began his surprise 5-minute speech about 10 minutes later.
Hunter Biden made a shameless appeal for the crowd’s sympathy outside the Capitol on Wednesday. Getty Images
House Republicans said that Hunter’s decision would push forward a planned Wednesday afternoon vote to formally authorize an impeachment inquiry that began Sept. 12 into Joe Biden’s role in the foreign affairs of his son and brother.
Hunter Biden’s legal team, led by high-powered attorney Abbe Lowell, repeatedly asked for a public hearing where House Democrats could take the stand, rather than the initial closed-door deposition where committee members and lawyers would ask questions.
“I’m here to testify at a public hearing today to answer any of the committee’s legitimate questions,” Hunter claimed, saying Republicans had “impugned my character” and “invaded my privacy.”
The first son, who did not respond to questions from the press, repeatedly insisted that his father was not “financially involved” in his affairs – rather than claiming he had no role at all.
Evidence shows Joe Biden met with his son’s associates from two Chinese business deals and others from Mexico, Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine, contradicting the president’s repeated claims that he never discussed business with his relatives. Most of those meetings took place during Biden’s vice presidency when he steered US foreign policy toward the country.
“For six years, I have been the target of Trump’s relentless attacks,” said the first child.
“The Republicans don’t want an open process where the American people can see their tactics, expose their baseless investigations, and hear what I have to say,” said Hunter, who faces federal gun and tax charges in California and Delaware.
“What are they afraid of?” the first son left. “I’m here. I’m ready.”
Allegations against Hunter Biden
COUNT 1: False Statement in the Purchase of a Firearm
Facing a maximum prison sentence of 10 years; $250,000 fine; 3 years of supervised release; special assessment $100.
COUNT 2: False Statement Regarding Information Required to Be Maintained by a Licensed Federal Firearms Dealer
Facing a maximum prison sentence of 5 years; $250,000 fine; 3 years of supervised release; special assessment $100.
COURT 3: Possession of a Firearm by a Person Who is an Unlawful User or Addicted to a Controlled Substance
Facing a maximum prison sentence of 10 years; $250,000 fine; 3 years of supervised release; special assessment $100.
Hunter also claimed congressional Republicans had “distorted facts.”
“In my addiction, I was very irresponsible with my finances. But to suggest that is a reason for an impeachment inquiry is absurd,” he said.
Hunter was subpoenaed to be interviewed by the Oversight Committee in private on Wednesday. CNP/Rod Lamkey
Hunter added that congressional Republicans were “cherry-picking lines from bank statements, manipulating texts I sent, editing the testimony of my friends and former business partners, and misrepresenting personal information stolen from me.”
The Republicans in charge of the impeachment inquiry were not impressed by the display.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) said his panel “issued a valid subpoena to the president’s son” and that “we expect to impeach the president’s son and then we would be more than happy to have a public hearing with him.”
“The president has not been honest about his association with these people who have funneled millions of dollars to Hunter Biden and the Biden family,” he said.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) told reporters: “If you do it in an open format now, you’re going to get filibusters, you’re going to get speeches, you’re going to get all kinds of things. What we want are facts.”
“I’m here to testify,” Biden said. Getty Images Republicans were not impressed by the display. Getty Images
“Mr. Biden’s lawyers and the White House and both have argued that the reason he can’t come for the impeachment is because there hasn’t been a formal vote on the impeachment inquiry,” Jordan added. “And that will happen in a few hours.”
Jordan went on to state that Donald Trump Jr. “had to testify twice” in private during the investigation of his father.
“You have the right to assert your Fifth Amendment rights,” Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) told The Post. “If Hunter Biden is guilty of as many crimes as we think, if he doesn’t want to answer questions about his business relationship with his father, which we now know exists — he will.
“But it took a long time to get him here, when really, what he really wanted was to make a public statement and then never answer a question… Our expectations for an honest and forthright answer from Hunter Biden are as low as the House White.”
Republicans speculated that Hunter spoke on the Senate side of the Capitol complex to avoid the possibility, however unlikely, of being arrested at the behest of House Speaker Mike Johnson and brought before a committee.
An empty seat is reserved for Hunter Biden at a scheduled deposition before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee. Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images
“I think it’s very interesting, just the fact that he’s not going to cross over to that part of the Capitol,” Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.) told The Post. “If he has, the Sergeant at Arms can arrest him and have him come and be before the committee.”
Democrats lined up to defend Biden, with Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, said Joe Biden could not be more innocent — even as Republicans claim some foreign funds may have been given to Joe Biden, in addition to his meetings with foreign allies.
“President Biden has done nothing wrong. They don’t lay gloves on President Biden and they have no evidence he did anything wrong, much less reprehensible wrongdoing,” Raskin said after Hunter’s speech.
Republicans and legal experts have floated articles of impeachment against Biden for offenses including abuse of power, obstruction of Congress, and even corruption.
Democratic representatives Jamie Raskin and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez outside the hearing room where Biden was supposed to be present. Rod Lamkey, Jr. / CNP
“Courts have repeatedly found that benefits to family members (much more modest than the millions in this case) can constitute bribery for a politician. That has also been the position of the Justice Department in past cases,” George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley wrote in a recent column.
Skipping the deposition could add to Hunter Biden’s own legal concerns.
Witnesses who refuse to comply with congressional subpoenas can be prosecuted — although Hunter would have to be prosecuted by his own father’s Justice Department after a referral vote by the House.
Steve Bannon, former chief strategist to President Donald Trump, was sentenced to four months in prison last year for refusing to comply with a subpoena issued by a House select committee investigating the 2021 Capitol riots. Peter Navarro, another former Trump adviser, was convicted of the same offense in September and is awaiting sentencing.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan said the deposition should have been held behind closed doors to avoid defamation and speech. Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images
Hunter already faces criminal charges for tax fraud outside Los Angeles and for illegal gun possession in Wilmington after he walked away from a probation-only plea deal in July over his lawsuit for assurances that he would have immunity from other possible charges, such as the Registration Act A potential Foreign Agent that could implicate his father.
IRS agents Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, who conducted a five-year investigation into Hunter’s foreign earnings, came forward as whistleblowers this year and claimed the investigation had been slow and that they had been prevented from investigating Joe Biden’s role in business dealings, even when direct communications involving the elder Biden.
In a July 2017 text message, Hunter Biden allegedly threatened an associate based in China with his father’s revenge, adding he was “sitting here” with his father. Within 10 days, $5.1 million flowed from Chinese government-linked companies to accounts linked to Hunter and first brother James Biden.
Hunter Biden departs after making his speech in front of the Capitol. CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images
As part of the same deal, Joe Biden, who recently stepped down as vice president, was at one point given a 10% cut by Hunter’s partner, according to a May 2017 email.
In an earlier China business deal, then-Vice President Joe Biden took Hunter to China aboard Air Force Two in late 2013 and met for coffee with the CEO of government-backed investment fund BHR Partners, co-founded by the second son of two weeks travel time.
Hunter Biden put Joe Biden on speakerphone with Li during a subsequent business trip to China, former Biden family business associate Devon Archer testified to the Oversight Committee on July 31.
Joe Biden also wrote college recommendation letters for Li’s children.
Hunter Biden held a 10% stake in BHR through at least part of his father’s first year as president and the terms of his disposal remain unclear.
In 2015, Joe Biden hosted billionaire Carlos Slim and members of the wealthy Mexican Aleman family, whom Hunter Biden wooed with energy and technology, at the vice president’s official residence in Washington.
Archer told the Oversight Committee that Hunter put his father on speakerphone during about 20 business meetings with foreign associates and that Joe Biden attended two dinners at DC’s Cafe Milano in 2014 and 2015 with Kazakhstani, Russian and Ukrainian clients.
The vice president’s dining partners at the time included former Moscow first lady Yelena Baturina, who transferred $3.5 million to entities linked to Hunter Biden in 2014, Kenes Rakishev, who bought his then-second son a $142,000 sports car, and Vadym Pozharsky, an adviser institution. to Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma Holdings, which paid Hunter up to $1 million a year starting in 2014 when his father assumed control of US policy toward Ukraine.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
