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WASHINGTON (AP) – Hunter Biden on Wednesday refused a congressional hearing to appear together for a statement in front of Republican investigators who are digging into his business dealings. He insisted that he was only testifying in front of people.
The Democratic president’s son complained the petition issued by the GOP for the closed-door testimony, arguing that information from those interviews could be leaked and manipulated.
“The Republicans don’t want an open system where the American people can see their tactics, expose their baseless research, or listen to what I have to say,” Biden said outside the the Capitol in general. “What are they afraid of?” I’m here.”
GOP Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, said Republicans expected “full cooperation” with the private sector. Comer and Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, told reporters later Wednesday that they will begin looking into the impeachment proceedings. Congress to respond to the lack of cooperation of Hunter Biden.
“He just got into a lot of trouble today,” Comer said.
For months, Republicans pursued a legal investigation seeks to tie President Joe Biden to his son’s business ventures. So far, GOP lawmakers have been unable to present evidence implicating the elder Biden in any wrongdoing.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the president was familiar with his son’s story. “I think what you saw was from the heart, from his son,” he said. “They are proud of their son.”
Democrats are united in opposition the Republican impeachment pushsaying “it’s an illegal exercise” is just a distraction from GOP chaos and chaos.
“We are in an amazing position for the US House of Representatives,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the Oversight and Accountability Committee. “Because this is an investigation nobody has been able to specify what crime or basis they are looking for.”
But questions have been raised about the ethics surrounding the Biden family’s international businesses, and lawmakers say their evidence paints a disturbing picture of “Trade experience” in their business practicesespecially to overseas customers.
“There is no evidence to support the allegations that my father was involved financially in my business because it never happened,” said Hunter Biden.
The White House has branded the entire process a “scam” that Republicans are pushing forward “despite the fact that members of their own party agree that it is not evidence to support the impeachment of President Biden.”
Although Republicans have maintained that their impeachment inquiry will ultimately focus on the president himself, they are very interested in it. Hunter Biden and his foreign business practices, where they accuse the president of personal gain. Republicans have also focused a large part of their investigation on allegations by the media of interference in the Department of Justice’s long investigation into the younger Biden’s taxes and his use of firearms.
Hunter Biden is currently facing criminal charges in two states from the special counsel’s investigation. He has been indicted on gun charges in Delaware, and is accused of violating anti-drug laws in 2018, during which he admitted to struggling with addiction. Special counsel David Weiss was hired extra charge last week, alleging he failed to pay $1.4 million in taxes over a three-year period.
Later on Wednesday, the House allowing judicial review. The House Republicans hoped that a vote to confirm their investigation would help their legal position if the sentence against Hunter Biden and other members of the Biden family is strengthened.
“Mr. Both Biden’s lawyers and the White House have argued that the reason he couldn’t appear for the verdict is because there hasn’t been a formal vote for an impeachment inquiry,” Jordan said in the your writers. “Well, that will happen in a few hours.”
He added, “And when that happens, we’ll see what their excuse is then.”
The Democrats and the White House have defended the president and his administration in cooperating with the investigation so far, saying that they have received a lot of evidence and a lot of documents.
Congressional investigators have obtained nearly 40,000 pages of bank records, dozens of hours of testimony from key witnesses, including several high-ranking Justice Department officials currently in charge of the investigating Hunter Biden.
One of those Justice Department officials, Lesley Wolf, the assistant US attorney for Delaware, is expected to arrive for a private interview with lawmakers on Thursday, according to a person familiar with the matter. familiar with the negotiations, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss details that have not yet been reached. has been announced to the public.
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Associated Press reporters Lindsay Whitehurst and Colleen Long contributed to this report.