Hunter Biden agrees to private deposition with House Republicans

WASHINGTON — Hunter Biden has agreed to appear before House Republicans for a private deposition next month, ending months of defiance from the president's son, who had insisted on testifying publicly.

The House Oversight Committee announced Thursday that the two parties have agreed for Hunter Biden to sit for a deposition on Feb. 28.

"The president's son is a key witness in this investigation and he's gonna be able to come in now and sit down and answer questions in a substantive, orderly manner," Rep. James Comer, chair of the Oversight Committee, told reporters. He added that Hunter Biden will be able to testify publicly sometime after his deposition.

News of the agreement was confirmed by Hunter Biden's legal team Thursday night.

Republicans had been set to advance a contempt resolution against him to the House floor this week but called it off Tuesday to give the attorneys additional time to negotiate. If they had voted on the contempt resolution, the referral would have been sent to the Justice Department where the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia would have had to decide whether to prosecute Hunter Biden.

The agreement concludes months of contentious back-and-forth between President Joe Biden's son and Republicans who have been investigating his overseas business dealings for over a year in a so far futile effort to connect it to his father.

Republicans, led by Comer and Jordan, first subpoenaed the younger Biden in November, demanding that he appear before lawmakers in a private setting by mid-December. Biden and his attorneys refused to comply with the private interview, saying that it would allow information to be selectively leaked and manipulated by House Republicans and insisted that he would only