'I have made mistakes': Defiant Hunter Biden lashes out at GOP and ignores subpoena

WASHINGTON − Hunter Biden defied a House subpoena Wednesday, using his congressionally mandated trip to Capitol Hill to lash out at Republicans in a rare and dramatic public statement about the toll the GOP-led effort has taken on him and his family.

“It’s shameless," Hunter Biden said outside the Capitol building. "There is no evidence to support the allegations that my father was involved in my business because it did not happen."

"During my battle with addiction, my parents were there for me," he added. "They literally saved my life. They helped me in ways I will never be able to repay. In the depths of my addiction, I was extremely irresponsible with my finances. But, to suggest that is grounds for an impeachment inquiry is beyond the absurd, it is shameless."

The decision to ignore the subpoena was significant because it means the president's son could be held in contempt of Congress. More broadly, it represents a new and more aggressive front in the Biden family response to a Republican-led impeachment battle unfolding on Capitol Hill regarding President Joe Biden's potential role in his son's business dealings.

The White House was aware of Hunter Biden's plan to make the comments, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.

“The president was certainly familiar with what his son was going to say. And I think what you saw was from the heart from his son," Jean-Pierre said. She declined to say if Joe Biden offered input on the statement.

Hunter Biden's long-held position on his deposition is that he wants to testify in public, in an open hearing − and not in a closed-door deposition as lawmakers demanded. But Republicans insist Democrats would have disrupted a public hearing. In response to Hunter Biden's statement, Republicans said they would begin contempt proceedings.

'We're disappointed he didn't show up'

“We’re disappointed he didn’t show up,” said Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee. “If you do it in an open forum now, you’re going to get filibusters, you’re going to get speeches, you’re going to get all kinds of things. What we want is the facts.”

In his speech, Hunter Biden denied that his father had anything to do with his serving on the board of Ukraine energy company, Chinese business partners or other investments.

“Let me state as clearly as I can: My father was not financially involved in my business, not as a practicing lawyer, not as a board member of Burisma, not my partnership with a Chinese private businessman, not in my investments at home, nor abroad," Hunter Biden said.

House Republicans subpoenaed Biden to ask about his overseas business deals in a closed-door deposition as part of an impeachment inquiry into his father, President Joe Biden.

House Republicans formally authorized their impeachment inquiry into the president on Wednesday.

Biden’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, had offered to have him testify at a public hearing, to avoid the risk of having parts of his testimony leaked selectively. But Republicans refused the offer saying Democrats would grandstand at a hearing and that they would dictate the terms of his appearance.

Rep. James Comer, who issued the subpoena as head of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, said the panel has accumulated “mountains of evidence,” including documents, bank statements, emails and texts.

“This has been a serious, credible, transparent investigation from Day One,” Comer said. “This is an investigation about public corruption at the highest levels.”

Comer said the committee could hold a public hearing after gathering information in a closed-door deposition.

“We expect to depose the president’s son and then we’ll be more than happy to have a hearing with him,” Comer said.

Three committees − Judiciary, Oversight and Accountability, and Ways and Means − are investigating Hunter Biden as part of the impeachment inquiry.

Hunter Biden accused Republicans of attacking him for six years in order to hurt his father politically, under former President Donald Trump and lawmakers under his banner of Make America Great Again.

"For six years, MAGA Republicans, including members of the House committees who are in a closed-door session right now, have impugned my character, invaded my privacy, attacked my wife, my children, my family and my friends," Hunter Biden said. "They have ridiculed my struggle with addiction. They've belittled my recovery and they've tried to dehumanize me, all to embarrass my father, who has devoted his entire public life to service."

Hunter Biden, who faces federal indictments on gun charges in Delaware and tax charges in California, acknowledged making "mistakes." He said he was "extremely irresponsible" with his finances during his battles with drug addiction.

"I am here today to acknowledge that I have made mistakes in my life and wasted opportunities and privileges I was afforded," he said. "For that, I am responsible. For that, I am accountable."

But he said it was absurd to suggest his business deals should be the foundation for an impeachment inquiry of his father.

"For six years, I have been the target of the unrelenting Trump attack machine, shouting, 'Where’s Hunter?'" Hunter Biden said, standing outside the Capitol. "Well, here’s my answer:  I am here."

A member of the Oversight Committee, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., said Republicans were reversing their decisions to hold a public inquiry and transcripts of depositions in the future.

“They have devised a story they cannot substantiate with facts,” she said. “They want to make sure the evidence remains behind closed doors and away from public view.”

What does House GOP want to ask Hunter Biden?

Comer has accused Hunter Biden of being at the center of a web of 20 shell companies that received millions of dollars from foreign entities in Ukraine, China and elsewhere, and allegedly funneled money to his father. The accusations, which Hunter Biden and the White House have called baseless, are at the heart of the impeachment inquiry.

The accusations basically are that Hunter Biden; the president's brother, James Biden; and other business associates received big-dollar business deals in exchange for peddling influence with the former vice president and president. The committee tracked financial transactions that lawmakers said showed money flowing from foreign companies, in some cases with links to foreign governments such as China, to Hunter Biden and his relatives.

But Joe Biden has called the accusations "lies" and said he didn't participate in his son's business deals. Lowell has called the allegations “false, recycled and debunked.”

Hunter Biden faces gun and tax charges in federal court

The congressional showdown comes as Hunter Biden faces gun and tax charges, after the collapse of a plea agreement in July.

In Delaware, Hunter Biden was indicted in September on three charges basically alleging he lied about being addicted to drugs when buying a gun in 2018. He has pleaded not guilty and Lowell has asked for the charges to be dismissed as unconstitutional.

In California, he was charged last week with three felonies and six misdemeanors for allegedly failing to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes from 2016 to 2019. He had paid the taxes before the plea agreement. His arraignment hasn't been set yet.

He is also under investigation for possible violations of the Foreign Agent Registration Act, which requires people who lobby the federal government for foreign interests to register with the Justice Department. But he hasn't been charged and the issue wasn't part of his plea agreement.

What does contempt of Congress mean?

The Oversight Committee and the full House could vote to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress and recommend the Justice Department prosecute him criminally, as happened twice during the Trump administration.

But the department would decide whether to prosecute the president's son, and it rejected recommendations to prosecute two White House aides during the Trump administration.

Jordan, the head of the Judiciary Committee, said Hunter Biden’s representatives said he wouldn’t appear because the House hadn't yet authorized an impeachment inquiry. The House voted Thursday to approve the inquiry.

Jordan said lawyers for the Oversight and Judiciary committees would explore a potential contempt citation against Hunter Biden.

“When Congress asks you to come, you’re supposed to come and testify,” Jordan said.

Democrats noted that a handful of House Republicans, including Jordan, defied subpoenas from the Democratic-led House committee that investigated the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021.

Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, has called the threat of contempt "a joke."

"Comer doesn’t want the truth − and can’t handle it," Raskin said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Hunter Biden defies GOP subpoena, blasts impeachment inquiry of dad