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House Speaker James Comer told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Friday that he believes special counsel David Weiss sued Hunter Biden to protect him from his impeachment next week ahead of the Comer committee.
“My concern is that Weiss may have sued Biden to prevent him from being removed from the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday,” Comer said on CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper. ”
Comer then went further, arguing that Weiss’ entire criminal investigation — which has indicted Biden in two states and could send him to prison for more than 40 years — “has a cover.”
The Kentucky Republican characterized the most federal charges brought against Biden so far, related to the purchase of firearms in 2018 and a tax evasion scheme, as “minimal.”
“Look at what he’s done,” Comer said. “Everybody in America will be in jail.”
In the interview, Comer Hunter Biden repeatedly said that he is guilty of illegal foreign influence and “influence abuse” involving his father. Hunter Biden was not charged with criminal defamation and there is nothing in the indictments to support the GOP claim that Joe Biden was involved in his son’s business dealings.
Comer’s comments came after he asked Hunter Biden to stand up for closing the door on December 13. Biden’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, told Congress that his partner was only willing to stand up for a public hearing. If Biden doesn’t show up Wednesday, Comer said he will hold the president’s son in contempt of Congress for avoiding his claim, taking the standoff to a breaking point.
Lowell told CNN’s Pamela Brown on Friday evening that no decision has been made on whether his client will stand trial.
Lowell also told Brown that Comer’s suggestion that Hunter Biden be sued to protect him was “stupid.” If the Republican chairman had argued that the move would protect the special counsel, Lowell said he probably would have agreed.
“(Weiss) did this because he did the pressure and the heat and the criticism in June when we made the deal that he rejected and now he’s going to show over and over again that he’s not going to do anything else. wrong to convict him. that kind of political pressure,” he told Brown on “The Source.”
The criminal case against the president’s son was close to ending in July, but a proposed settlement was scrapped after a federal judge’s investigation and legal disputes in the between the two sides.
New tax returns stemming from Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings — including his involvement in Ukrainian energy firm Burisma and a Chinese hedge fund — are at the center of an investigation by House Republicans. Joe Biden.
This article has been updated with additional information.
CNN’s Kaanita Iyer contributed to this report.