Bombarded with an impeachment inquiry and the threat of a contempt of Congress charge, Joe and Hunter Biden ran to friendly regime media for cover on Dec. 13, 2023.
After defying a subpoena to testify before the House Oversight Committee on Dec. 13, Hunter Biden told his dad's pals in legacy media: “Here I am Mr. Chairman, taking up your offer when you said we can bring these people for depositions or committee hearings, whichever they choose. Well, I’ve chosen, I’m here to testify at a public hearing today to answer any of the committee’s legitimate questions,” Hunter Biden said. “I’m also here today to correct how the MAGA right has portrayed me for their political purposes.”
Hunter went on to say: “Let me state as clearly as I can: My father was not financially involved in my business, not as a practicing lawyer, not as a board member of Burisma, not in my partnership with a Chinese private businessman, not in my investments at home nor abroad, and certainly not as an artist.”
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre confirmed that Joe Biden was aware of what his son was going to tell the press.
While portrayed by media strategic allies glowingly as an admirable father and son sticking up for one another, independent media and analysts raised the more obvious scenario: criminal collusion.
Law professor Jonathan Turley wrote:
"There is another possible cost to this move. Fox News quoted White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre saying that (Joe) Biden 'was certainly familiar with what his son was going to say,' which suggests that" Joe spoke with Hunter "before his act of contempt and discussed his statement. If that is true, it was a breathtaking mistake. One of the four most obvious potential articles of impeachment that I laid out in my prior testimony was obstruction. There already are questions over special treatment potentially being given to Hunter in the form of alleged felonies being allowed to expire, warnings about planned federal raids, and sweetheart deals."
If KJP's assertion is accurate, then Joe Biden "was speaking with his son about committing a potentially criminal act of contempt," Turley added. "Hunter was refusing to give testimony focused not on his own role but on his father's potential role in the alleged influence peddling. The House can pursue evidence on that conversation" and, Turley added, how Joe Biden "may have supported his son’s effort."Journalist Mollie Hemingway noted on Facebook: "Kind of wild that KJP confessed that Biden knew his son was going to obstruct justice and engage in a criminal act of contempt to keep from giving testimony focused on his father's influence peddling. Have to imagine the House is super interested in that."
Hunter Biden was under a subpoena from the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability to appear for testimony. Turley had previously noted that Hunter Biden "had two choices: He could appear and either testify or invoke his right to remain silent. The only thing that he could not do is what he did — just refuse to go into the hearing room. Yet, there he was, with counsel Abbe Lowell by his side,holding forth with a public press conference while refusing to appear in the closed-door deposition being held in the building behind him."
Turley added: "By staying on the Senate side of the Capitol, Hunter guaranteed that the House sergeant at arms did not pull him into the hearing room. Ironically, that would have been a better option than his blowing a raspberry at the committee and then speeding away."
The evidence against Hunter Biden, Turley continued, "is overwhelming, as shown in his second federal indictment on tax charges. He and his uncles were allegedly engaged in one of the largest influence-peddling operations in history involving millions of dollars from various foreign sources. Hunter simply could have done what prior witnesses have done: Go in and take the Fifth. That is what attorney and former IRS official Lois Lerner did — twice — when House Republicans wanted to ask her about the Obama Administration targeting conservative groups. It was a no-brainer that someone appears to have radically over-thought on the Hunter Biden legal team."
In a LinkedIn post, Simon Ateba, White House correspondent for Today News Africa, offered another angle on a highly irregular father-son relationship:
"As a U.S. Senator from Delaware, Joe Biden was one of the primary sponsors in the Senate of the 1994 Crime Bill (the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994). As a sponsor, he was instrumental in advocating for the bill and helping to build bipartisan support for its passage. He said anyone caught with a small amount of drug should spend at least five years in jail and everything from their car, to their house and bank account should be confiscated by the government.
"Now that his son, Hunter Biden, is a drug addict, Biden, whose sponsored bill sent thousands of people to prison and destroyed their lives with criminal records, says he stands by his son, not just for drugs, for illegal gun possession, for refusing to pay taxes after making millions of dollars, for several other alleged crimes. As you can see, the law does not apply equally to the sons and daughters of the poor and rich in the United States of America. May God help us."
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