Hunter Biden is set to appear on Capitol Hill on Wednesday for a long-awaited deposition with House lawmakers, who are expected to question the first son on his years’ worth of international business dealings as part of their impeachment inquiry into his father.
The deposition with President Joe Biden’s son is set to take place at 10 a.m. before the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees.
Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY) described the deposition in a statement as a chance for the committees to grill Hunter Biden about his past habit of wielding his last name and his father’s political influence to secure lucrative business deals abroad. The chairman also indicated that lawmakers plan to examine what level of awareness Joe Biden had about his son’s business activity.
“We’ve documented how Joe Biden has met with nearly all of his son’s foreign business associates as they were collectively funneling millions to the Bidens,” Comer said Tuesday. “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.”
Hunter Biden, the GOP’s most high-profile witness, is set to answer questions under oath from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers in a closed-door setting that could last several hours. James Biden, one of the president’s brothers, testified last week in an interview that stretched more than eight hours.
The meeting with Hunter Biden has been a long time coming. The committees initially subpoenaed him in November 2023, but the first son defied the subpoena, arguing that he was only willing to testify in a public setting because otherwise, he claimed, Republicans would publicly mischaracterize his closed-door remarks.
However, after lawmakers threatened to hold him in contempt of Congress, Hunter Biden shifted his position and indicated a willingness to cooperate. While securing a meeting with such a valuable witness was a victory for GOP lawmakers, Hunter Biden’s counsel still pushed for and secured at least one concession as part of the terms of the deposition, according to two sources familiar with the negotiations.
The first son, unlike James Biden and several other witnesses in the impeachment inquiry, will not have his deposition video recorded, the sources said.
Another term of the deposition was that lawmakers would publicly release the transcript of it as soon as possible. The transcript must be approved by both Comer and Oversight ranking member Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD). Any disagreements would result in the committee holding a vote to release it.
Comer has long vowed that he would release the transcript of any interview with Hunter Biden.
One aide working on the impeachment inquiry emphasized that, saying Comer “has been committed to transparency during the entirety of this investigation and has long stated that he would release Hunter Biden’s deposition transcript as expeditiously as possible.”
Hunter Biden’s deposition comes as he is also facing criminal charges in California for allegedly failing to pay taxes on more than $7 million of income during a four-year period beginning in 2016.
Special counsel David Weiss cited in his indictment the first son’s income from a board position Hunter Biden held with Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings, from a Romanian contract he entered into to help businessman Gabriel Popoviciu with legal troubles, and from deals he entered into with CEFC, a Chinese energy conglomerate.
House Republicans have interviewed numerous associates who worked with Hunter Biden on these ventures and have gathered thousands of financial records that reflect the income Weiss laid out in his indictment.
Hunter Biden is expected to face intense rounds of questioning on what involvement, if any, Joe Biden had in his son’s work, which is a key allegation the GOP is vetting as part of its inquiry.
Republicans have not proven that Joe Biden profited off his family’s business, which has elevated doubts among the conference that a vote on impeaching the president will come to fruition.
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However, Comer noted in his statement Tuesday that Hunter Biden’s deposition would not be the conclusion of the inquiry.
“There are more subpoenas and witness interviews to come,” the chairman said. “We will continue to follow the facts to inform legislative reforms to federal ethics laws and determine whether articles of impeachment are warranted.”