A defiant Hunter Biden rails against GOP impeachment inquiry

House Republicans grilled the president’s son over his lucrative business deals.

Hunter Biden and his lawyer Abbe Lowell arrive on Capitol Hill. Picture: AFP

House Republicans hold up President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, as evidence the family has unfairly profited from the patriarch’s political career. On Wednesday, they got their first, best chance at confronting him about that allegation.

Yet instead of a Perry Mason moment, a long-hyped closed-door interview of Mr Biden Jr by members of the Republican-led House of Representatives committees seeking to impeach the President appeared to make little, if any, major progress in proving the key accusation of their inquiry: that Joe Biden benefited from his son’s business dealings.

During the hours-long testimony, the President’s son sought to turn the partisan tables and suggested the house panels look into business dealings of former president Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who has attracted scrutiny because his firm has received billions in investments from Gulf states.

Mr Biden Jr’s tone was defiant with a dash of humility, according to those who participated in the hearing. “You have trafficked in innuendo, distortion and sensationalism – all the while ignoring the clear and convincing evidence staring you in the face,” he told the legislators, according to a prepared opening statement viewed by The Wall Street Journal.

“To be clear, I have made mistakes in my life, and I have squandered opportunities and privileges that were afforded to me. I know that. I am responsible for that. And I am making amends for that. But my mistakes and shortcomings are my own, not my father’s.”

Republican house oversight and accountability committee chair James Comer described it as a great deposition that proved several bits of their evidence, without offering specifics. “There are also some contradictory statements that need further review,” he said, adding he planned to have a public hearing featuring Mr Biden Jr.

“Hunter Biden is being defiant and also dishonest,” said Republican Nancy Mace, adding that there were several questions he declined to answer on the grounds that he didn’t recall specific events.

Ms Mace said the President’s son contradicted the testimony of other witnesses, without specifying exactly what he said or whom he contradicted.

Topics covered in the interview included a detailed examination of Mr Biden Jr’s resume and various positions on boards. They also covered his habit of using speakerphones when his father called.

Democrat Jamie Raskin, the ranking member of the oversight committee, called it “a rather embarrassing spectacle where the Republicans continued to belabour completely trivial points.”

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called the hearing a “deep-sea fishing expedition.”

A string of recent developments revealed weaknesses in the Republicans’ case that gave Mr Biden Jr a measure of confidence as he walked into the proceedings. Weeks earlier, a former FBI informant was charged with fabricating an explosive corruption claim involving Joe Biden, his son and Ukrainian energy company Burisma. Prosecutors said Alexander Smirnov lied to his FBI handler by falsely claiming that executives associated with Burisma had admitted to paying $US5m each to Joe and Hunter Biden during the elder Biden’s vice-presidency to help protect the Ukrainian company from investigation by the country’s prosecutor-general at the time.

Mr Smirnov, 43, has pleaded not guilty. His allegations had been memorialised in an internal FBI report that Republicans obtained and touted last year in their push to impeach Mr Biden.

In his opening statement on Wednesday, Mr Biden Jr seized on the indictment, saying Mr Smirnov “has made you dupes in carrying out a Russian disinformation campaign against my father.”

His testimony followed appearances by his uncle, James Biden, and past associates who have testified that President Biden was never involved in his family’s business dealings or took official actions related to them.

In his opening statement, Mr Biden Jr pointed to what he called a “parade of other witnesses” who had testified that his father wasn’t involved in his business endeavours. “I am here today to provide the committees with the one uncontestable fact that should end the false premise of this inquiry: I did not involve my father in my business,” he said. “Never.”

The Wall Street Journal