Hunter Biden, son of the President, on Tuesday offered to testify publicly before the Republican-led House Oversight Committee.
Hunter Biden’s attorney Abbe Lowell disclosed the offer in a letter in response to a Congressional subpoena earlier this month as part of the Oversight Committee’s impeachment inquiry into President Biden.
The committee had requested that Hunter Biden testify behind closed doors, though Lowell in his three-page letter cited past comments from Oversight Chair James Comer (R-KY) essently daring Hunter Biden to testify publicly.
“Mr. Chairman, we take you up on your offer,” Lowell wrote. “Accordingly, our client will get right to it by agreeing to answer any pertinent and relevant question you or your colleagues might have, but—rather than subscribing to your cloaked, one-sided process—he will appear at a public Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing.”
Lowell further asserted that a public hearing would prevent “selective leaks, manipulated transcripts, doctored exhibits, or one-sided press statements.”
However, Hunter Biden would also be taking risks, both political and criminal, if he testifies publicly as he’s under investigation by Special Counsel David Weiss and has been indicted on federal charges related to a gun possession case.
Comer responded to Lowell’s letter in his own statement later on Tuesday, indicating that he would not comply with Biden’s request that his deposition be given in public.
“Hunter Biden is trying to play by his own rules instead of following the rules required of everyone else,” he said. “That won’t stand with House Republicans.”
The Oversight Committee expects Biden to appear before its members behind closed doors on December 13.
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