Top House Republicans are increasingly hopeful they will hear from Hunter Biden as part of the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.
We’ve noticed a significant change in their rhetoric this week.
“We don’t have a date, but our counsel has had good conversations with Hunter Biden lawyer [Abbe] Lowell,” House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said Wednesday when asked if they had nailed down a time for Hunter Biden’s testimony.
As for James Biden, the president’s brother, Jordan said his team has “had a number of talks with his lawyer.” James Biden’s team has been far less adversarial than Hunter Biden’s camp, and there’s widespread expectation he will testify.
To rewind: Just last week, Republicans were moving quickly to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress for defying a congressional subpoena. But those proceedings were called off after Lowell said his client would appear for a private deposition as long as a new subpoena is issued.
The Hunter and James Biden developments are the latest signs of progress in the Republican scramble to hear from witnesses in the impeachment inquiry. After issuing a flurry of subpoenas last fall, the Judiciary and Oversight panels are now focused on deposing figures in and around the Biden family in the first two months of 2024.
House Republicans have yet to find conclusive evidence that Biden committed impeachable offenses. GOP investigators are seeking to connect Biden’s family members’ business dealings to any official actions Biden took as vice president.
Looking ahead: Jordan also confirmed that the committees have scheduled depositions for more key figures in the investigation:
→ Former Hunter Biden business associates Eric Schwerin and Rob Walker
→ Hunter Biden’s associate Kevin Morris
→ Mervyn Yan — a former Chinese energy company executive who worked with both Hunter and James Biden
“We’re gonna have a lot of questions about specific transactional relationships and conversations,” House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) told us.
Republicans hope to use the upcoming transcribed interviews to glean more information on Biden’s alleged involvement in his family’s dealings. When former Hunter Biden business associate Devon Archer testified last summer, Republicans gained the biggest revelation of their investigation.
Archer told members that Hunter Biden would place then-Vice President Joe Biden on speaker phone with his business partners. Archer insisted Joe Biden didn’t discuss business.
— Max Cohen
