Hunter Biden has appeared at Capitol Hill for a closed-door deposition related to the impeachment inquiry of his father, U.S President Joe Biden, before the Republican-led House oversight and judiciary committees.
The deposition could mark a decisive point for the 14-month Republican investigation into the Biden family, which has centered on Hunter Biden and his overseas work for clients in Ukraine, China, Romania and other countries.
Republicans have long questioned whether those business dealings involved corruption and influence peddling by President Joe Biden, particularly when he was U.S Vice President.
For years, Republicans have said that Joe Biden illicitly benefited from Hunter’s business dealings overseas but are yet to produce any proof.
Hunter is the second member of the Biden family questioned by Republicans in recent days.
They conducted a more than eight-hour interview last week with James Biden, the U.S President’s brother.
He insisted to lawmakers that Joe Biden has “never had any involvement,” financially or otherwise, in his business ventures.
In his opening statement to the House oversight and judiciary committees, Hunter Biden said his father has “never” been involved in any of his business ventures and decried the GOP’s campaign to impeach Joe Biden over unproven claims of corruption.
“I am here today to provide the Committees with the one uncontestable fact that should end the false premise of this inquiry: I did not involve my father in my business.
“Not while I was a practicing lawyer, not in my investments or transactions domestic or international, not as a board member, and not as an artist. Never.”
Hunter Biden
He criticised the Republican party for its pursuit of his father, saying, “For more than a year, your Committees have hunted me in your partisan political pursuit of my Dad.”
He added, “You have trafficked in innuendo, distortion, and sensationalism – all the while ignoring the clear and convincing evidence staring you in the face.”
“You do not have evidence to support the baseless and MAGA-motivated conspiracies about my father because there isn’t any,” he asserted.
Hunter Biden also bridled at theRepublican party’s reliance on discredited sources to attack him and his father.
The weaknesses of some of the evidence Republicans have used to claim corruption on his part and Joe Biden’s became apparent earlier this month when Alexander Smirnov, a former FBI informant, was indicted for lying to the government.
Prosecutors later revealed that the information he had provided about Hunter Biden came from Russian intelligence.
Nonetheless, Jim Jordan, the C of the House Judiciary Committee, said last week that the informant’s indictment “does not change the fundamental facts” that the Biden family tried to benefit off the family name in several overseas businesses.
In reference to this Hunter Biden said in the statement, “You have built your entire partisan house of cards on lies told by the likes of Gal Luft, Tony Bobulinski, Alexander Smirnov and Jason Galanis.”
“Luft, who is a fugitive, has been indicted for his lies and other crimes; Smirnov, who has made you dupes in carrying out a Russian disinformation campaign waged against my father, has been indicted for his lies; Bobulinski, who has been exposed for the many false statements he has made, and Galanis, who is serving 14 years in prison for fraud.
“Rather than follow the facts as they have been laid out before you in bank records, financial statements, correspondence and other witness testimony, you continue your frantic search to prove the lies you, and those you rely on, keep peddling. Yes, they are lies.”
Hunter Biden
Democrat Decries Impeachment Investigation
The top Democrat on the House oversight committee, Jamie Raskin described the Republican impeachment investigation into President Joe Biden as a “comedy of errors.”
He made the remarks as Hunter Biden testified before the committee.
“This has been a comedy of errors from the beginning,” Raskin said.
Raskin stressed that there is no evidence that President Biden was involved in Hunter Biden’s business dealings.
He added that the impeachment inquiry does not meet the standard of high crimes and misdemeanors.
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