Hunter Biden declines invitation to testify on Capitol Hill

Hunter Biden’s attorney has informed House Oversight Chairman James Comer that the president’s son will not accept the committee’s invitation for him to appear at a public hearing, according to a letter obtained by CNN.

Hunter Biden’s attorney has informed House Oversight Chairman James Comer that the president’s son will not accept the committee’s invitation for him to appear at a public hearing, according to a letter obtained by CNN. Last month, Hunter Biden spoke at a closed-door deposition before the House Oversight and Judiciary committees about his foreign business dealings as part of the Republican-controlled House’s larger interest in pursuing his father for a potential impeachment. Republicans are still planning to hold a hearing next week with three other witnesses they’ve interviewed as part of their inquiry into President Joe Biden, House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan told CNN on Wednesday. The attorney, Abbe Lowell, argued the hearing “is not a serious oversight proceeding. It is your attempt to resuscitate your Conference’s moribund inquiry with a made-for-right-wing-media, circus act.” Calling the invitation “a Hail Mary pass,” Lowell wrote: “I thought even you would recognize your baseless impeachment proceeding was dead.” In his letter, Lowell also criticized Comer’s decision to invite some of the discredited business associates tied to the president’s son to the same hearing. He argued if Comer was serious about holding an oversight hearing to address alleged influence peddling, the committee should invite Jared Kushner and members of the Trump family alongside Hunter Biden. Lowell said that the president’s son answered every question Republicans had for him in the six-hour closed door deposition. And Lowell even used Comer’s own words against him to argue that a hearing was not necessary.