House Republicans unveiled proposals on Monday to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress after the president’s son defied their subpoenas last month by declining to appear for a closed-door deposition.
The House Oversight and Judiciary committees each published nearly identical resolutions and accompanying reports detailing the chain of events that led to their decision to move forward with contempt, a rare proceeding that has occurred less than a dozen times in the last decade.
The committees will hold hearings to consider the resolutions on Wednesday morning, and aides from both committees said they expect them to pass. From there, the full House will vote on a final resolution.
If that passes, the House will refer contempt to the Department of Justice, which then has discretion over whether to prosecute Biden.
The resolutions come after the committees subpoenaed the first son to appear for a deposition on Dec. 13, but Biden instead appeared in Washington and delivered remarks outside the Capitol building, saying he was only willing to testify at a public hearing.
“Mr. Biden’s flagrant defiance of the Committees’ deposition subpoenas — while choosing to appear nearby on the Capitol grounds to read a prepared statement on the same matters — is contemptuous, and he must be held accountable for his unlawful actions,” the reports read.
Biden’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, did not respond to a request for comment.
Lowell previously told Republicans in response to their requests for Biden’s testimony that the first son’s decision to appear strictly in a public setting was made to avoid lawmakers releasing cherry-picked takeaways after interviewing Biden behind closed doors.
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“[Hunter Biden] is making this choice because the Committee has demonstrated time and again it uses closed-door sessions to manipulate, even distort, the facts and misinform the American public — a hearing would ensure transparency and truth in these proceedings,” Lowell wrote.
Read a copy of the House Oversight Committee’s resolution and report here.
