Hunter Biden has wriggled out of congress showdown … for now

US President Joe Biden's son Hunter outside the US Capitol on Thursday. Picture: Getty Images.

“I did not have financial relations with that man.” Republicans couldn’t help themselves in making comparisons to Bill Clinton’s famous defence on Wednesday (Thursday AEDT) after Hunter Biden insisted in a press conference near what’s known as the Senate Swamp that his father was not “financially involved” in his many foreign business dealings.

The “first son” defied a congressional subpoena to appear before the House oversight committee to answer questions about how much his father knew about his various and lucrative business dealings with Chinese and Ukrainian companies going back at least to 2015.

Hunter Biden’s insisting on giving answers only in public then driving off was a cute move, but it’s highly likely he will be back to respond in the closed-door format Republican want, for both legal and political reasons.

The Justice Department doesn’t have to agree to almost certain forthcoming Republican recommendation to charge Hunter with contempt. But it will look awfully biased if it doesn’t. Former Trump advisers Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro were both charged for similarly not turning up.

President Joe Biden himself in October 2021 declared publicly he expected the Justice Department to prosecute anyone who didn’t comply with the January 6 commission’s subpoena requests.

Donald Trump’s adult children sat for deposition for many hours with the Democrat-controlled committee without any petulant displays in advance.

And, finally, the House of Representatives, only hours after Hunter snubbed its request, voted to establish an impeachment inquiry by a vote of 221 to 212 (on party lines), which beefs up Republicans’ legal authority to demand interviews and documents in the 2024 presidential election year.

Whatever happens, Hunter doesn’t have to worry about going to jail – his father can pardon him for any conviction, even prospectively.

Joe has more to worry about: what will his son ultimately say?

It’s already become clear Joe Biden has been economical with the truth about the extent of his knowledge of Hunter’s business dealings.

After saying he knew nothing about his son’s work, it turned out Joe Biden had met and played golf with Hunter’s business associates, and attended lunches with clients, at swish restaurants in Washington, all while he was vice-president.

How did all these Biden family members end up with multiple millions via shell companies without seemingly doing anything for it?

Maybe Joe Biden wasn’t “financially” involved, but simply being involved somehow might ultimately be enough to rise to the level of “high crimes and misdemeanours” required by the constitution to impeach a president. We’ll see.

House Republicans have spent the year unearthing a web of financial transactions and shell companies linked to Biden family members. The President’s brother James has been subpoenaed too.

Democrats and their media backers probably rightly point out that technically there’s not enough evidence to prove any illegality by the President, which is a stark reminder of the moral decay of US governing class.

Imagine if Lyndon Johnson’s or Richard Nixon’s adult children had been receiving multiple millions from Soviet businesses wanting access to the family name while their father was vice-president.

For his part, Hunter Biden might be more worried about the other charges he’s facing, by now a distant second to Trump’s in their extent and complexity: three gun charges in Delaware (for lying about his drug use when he purchased a gun) and as of last week another nine new tax charges in California.

His legal team have asked for the gun charges to be dismissed on the grounds they are unconstitutional. Who expected the Biden family to be 2nd amendment absolutists!