Hunter Biden, son of U.S. President Joe Biden, is seen as he makes a surprise appearance at a House Oversight Committee markup and meeting to vote on whether to hold Biden in contempt of Congress for failing to respond to a request to testify to the House last month, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., January 10, 2024.
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters
An attorney for Hunter Biden told House Republican committee chairs on Friday that he will comply with subpoenas demanding his deposition if they issue a new one — a reversal of his prior demand that such testimony be given at a public hearing.
The surprising offer came two days after two House committees passed resolutions urging that the son of President Joe Biden be found in contempt of Congress for defying previous subpoenas.
Hunter Biden showed up at the hearing of one of those panels before it voted, silently staring down GOP lawmakers who want to depose him for an inquiry into President Biden’s possible impeachment.
A full House of Representatives vote on the contempt resolutions had been expected next week. But Hunter Biden’s new offer to be deposed could change that.
If Biden is found in contempt of Congress, the Department of Justice would consider whether to prosecute him for failing to comply with the prior subpoenas.
In his letter Friday, Biden’s attorney Abbe Lowell told two House Republican committee chairmen that those prior subpoenas were legally invalid.
But, “If you issue a new proper subpoena, now that there is a duly authorized impeachment inquiry, Mr. Biden will comply for a hearing or deposition,” Lowell wrote Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer of Kentuck and Ohio’s Jim Jordan, the head of the Judiciary panel.
“We will accept such a subpoena on Mr. Biden’s behalf.”
Lowell’s offer came at the end of an eight-page letter criticizing the chairman for passing contempt resolutions despite Biden’s insistence that he was willing to testify in public.
“You proceeded with a contempt process, erroneously…
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