Hunter Biden, the son of Joe Biden, is due to appear at a closed-door hearing to testify as part of the GOP-led attempt to impeach the president over disputed corruption claims.
Hunter Biden will appeal before Republicans on the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees on Wednesday to answer questions relating to claims that his father personally benefited from and influenced his foreign business deals in China and Ukraine while Joe Biden was vice president.
The claims have been denied by the White House and Hunter Biden’s lawyers, with Democrats also criticizing the GOP for failing to produce any evidence to back up their claims.
The testimony from Hunter Biden arrives at a crucial time for House Republicans as their attempts to impeach the president recently suffered a major blow and faced claims that the entire process is collapsing.
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Last week, a former FBI informant was charged with making false bribery claims that Joe and Hunter Biden were paid $5 million by Ukrainian energy company Burisma after having been considered a key witness in the impeachment inquiry. Prosecutors then alleged that the informant, Alexander Smirnov, was fed the apparent lie after meeting with Russian intelligence officials.
Hunter Biden previously defied a congressional subpoena to appear for a closed-door deposition in front of House Republicans as part of the impeachment proceedings, saying he would testify in a public hearing to fully expose the GOP’s “baseless” inquiry.
Following negotiations between Hunter Biden’s team and congressional Republicans, the president’s son agreed to the closed-door testimony under terms that would differentiate it from other hearings. That includes agreeing that the interview will not be videotaped, and a transcript of the deposition will be made public as soon as possible, reported CNN and ABC News, citing unnamed sources.
Hunter Biden’s legal team has been approached for comment.
James Biden, the president’s younger brother, recently testified as part of the inquiry.
In his opening statement on February 21, James Biden said suggestions from Republican lawmakers that his businesses improperly benefited from his brother’s status were “either mistaken, ill-informed or flat-out lying.”
In a statement ahead of Hunter Biden’s testimony, Representative James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said they will continue with their impeachment investigation despite calls from Democrats to end it following the Russian intelligence claims against Smirnov.
“Our committees have the opportunity to depose Hunter Biden, a key witness in our impeachment inquiry of President Joe Biden, about this record of evidence,” Comer said.
“This deposition is not the conclusion of the impeachment inquiry. There are more subpoenas and witness interviews to come. We will continue to follow the facts to inform legislative reforms to federal ethics laws and determine whether articles of impeachment are warranted.”
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.