House Republicans move toward holding Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress

WASHINGTON — House Republicans on the Judiciary and Oversight committees are prepared to move forward with a resolution to hold the president’s son Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress for defying their subpoena to appear for a closed-door deposition.

In an announcement first shared with NBC News, the Oversight Committee said it will hold a markup on Jan. 10 at 10 a.m. ET to prepare the contempt resolution for a vote in the House at a future date. Before the markup, both committees will release a report outlining their rationale for holding Hunter Biden in contempt.

Hunter Biden's team and House Republicans are in a showdown over his cooperation with the GOP's wide-ranging impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. The committees' chairmen, Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., and Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, have said they believe that Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings were the result of influence peddling based on his father’s political status. But Republicans have yet to present any hard evidence that the president personally benefited from his son’s businesses.

The impeachment inquiry, which has been underway for months, was formally approved along partisan lines by the full House of Representatives right before the Congress left for the holiday recess.

And the markup will be held the day before Hunter Biden is scheduled to be arraigned in Los Angeles on the nine federal tax-related charges stemming from a separate special counsel investigation into his finances and other matters. A committee source said the timing was coincidental — Jan. 10 is the first full day the House will be in session this year.

The committees had subpoenaed Hunter Biden to appear for a closed-door deposition. Instead of agreeing to the terms of