House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) and House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) are suggesting that President Biden may have “engaged in a conspiracy to obstruct a proceeding of Congress” if he knew that his son Hunter Biden planned to defy a congressional subpoena.
In a Wednesday letter to Edward Siskel, a White House counsel and assistant to the president, the committee chairs requested documents and communications from employees of the Executive Office of the President regarding the deposition of Hunter Biden.
Comer and Jordan pointed to a statement from White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre to justify their suspicion of obstruction and said it “could constitute an impeachable offense.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The charge comes two weeks after Hunter Biden defied a subpoena from House Republicans as part of their impeachment probe concerning the president’s relationship with his family’s business dealings. The White House has repeatedly asserted that the president had no involvement in those business dealings, and it has rebuffed other accusations of obstruction by pointing to numerous Biden administration officials speaking to the committees.
In response to the House GOP subpoena to appear in a closed-door deposition, Hunter Biden had offered to speak in a public hearing, with his attorney pointing to a previous statement from Comer saying that witnesses could come in “depositions or committee hearings, whichever they choose.” But Comer and Jordan said a closed-door format was necessary first.
Rather than appear for the deposition scheduled for Dec. 13, Hunter Biden spoke outside the Capitol — in a space recorded to be reserved by Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) — and made a statement to the press asserting that his father was never financially involved with his businesses. House Republicans have pledged to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress over his failure to appear for the closed-door session.
Comer and Jordan wrote that a statement from Jean-Pierre indicated that “President Biden was aware in advance that his son, Hunter Biden, would knowingly defy two congressional subpoenas,” compelling them “to examine as part of our impeachment inquiry whether the President engaged in a conspiracy to obstruct a proceeding of Congress.”
The day that Hunter Biden did not appear for the deposition, Jean-Pierre in a press briefing dodged questions about whether he should appear for a subpoena but said the president had some insight ahead of his son’s comments.
“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,” she said.
Comer and Jordan also brought up a Dec. 6 statement from Biden saying that claims he interacted with his son and brother’s foreign business partners were “a bunch of lies.” Devon Archer, a former Hunter Biden business partner, has testified that Biden exchanged pleasantries with some of Hunter Biden’s foreign business partners on speakerphone phone calls and during a 2014 dinner at Cafe Milano but did not discuss business.
“In light of this evidence, the fact that the President had advanced awareness that Mr. Biden would defy the Committees’ subpoenas raises a troubling new question that we must examine: whether the President corruptly sought to influence or obstruct the Committees’ proceeding by preventing, discouraging, or dissuading his son from complying with the Committees’ subpoenas,” the letter said. “Such conduct could constitute an impeachable offense.”
Comer and Jordan requested that the White House provide by Jan. 10 all documents and communications “sent or received by employees of the Executive Office of the President regarding the deposition of Hunter Biden” and “sent or received by employees of the Executive Office of the President regarding President Biden’s statement about his family’s business associates on December 6, 2023.”
This story was updated at 4:47 p.m.