House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) said if Hunter Biden were allowed to testify before the committee in a public hearing rather than behind closed doors, Democrats would be “yelling and screaming” at the event.
“Look, this is a serious investigation. This is about public corruption at the highest levels of our government. We have over 10,000 pages of documents that we’ve obtained pertaining to Hunter Biden’s financial transactions with our enemies around the world,” Comer said on Newsmax’s “Wake Up America” on Wednesday.
“We need to ask him hundreds of questions. If he comes in for one hearing with 24 members having five minutes each to ask questions, with the Democrats yelling and screaming like they do every hearing, we would probably get about 30 to 35 questions here,” he continued.
Hunter Biden’s attorney Abbe Lowell wrote a letter Tuesday proposing a public hearing in response to a subpoena sent earlier in November by the committee, which is investigating Biden’s business dealings as part of an impeachment investigation into his father, President Biden. The committee was seeking a closed-door deposition on Dec. 13, but Lowell said he was wary that Comer and Republicans would not provide a truthful account of such a deposition.
Lowell noted that Comer previously said Hunter Biden is “more than welcome” before the committee, adding that “our client will get right to it by agreeing to answer any pertinent and relevant question you or your colleagues might have, but — rather than subscribing to your cloaked, one-sided process — he will appear at a public Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing.”
Comer denied the request for the December testimony to be public.
He said he will “gladly have a public venue” for Biden but would welcome it after the Dec. 13 private deposition.
The committee chair likened Hunter Biden’s subpoena to that sent to Steve Bannon by the former House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack.
“He refused to do the deposition and Congress held Steve Bannon in contempt of court,” Comer said Wednesday. “We will treat Hunter Biden the exact same way the January 6 Committee treated Steve Bannon.”
The committee’s impeachment inquiry into President Biden is investigating claims of improper influence peddling while he served as vice president for former President Obama, whether any foreign money came from his family’s business dealings and claims that the investigation into Hunter Biden’s tax crimes were obstructed by the Justice Department.