Hunter Biden says he will sit for public deposition or hearing if subpoenaed again

The attorney for President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, says his client will appear for a public hearing or deposition if presented with legally valid subpoenas issued as part of the House’s impeachment inquiry into the elder Mr Biden, according to a letter reviewed by The Independent.

In the letter, which was sent to House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer and House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan on Friday, Biden’s attorney Abbe Lowell said that the November subpoenas previously served on his client have no validity because they were issued before the full House of Representatives voted to authorise an impeachment inquiry into President Biden.

Mr Lowell, a former counsel to the House of Representatives, cited a 2020 Office of Legal Counsel opinion issued during the then-Democratic-led House’s impeachment probe into former president Donald Trump, which stated that the chamber “must provide express authorization before any committee may exercise compulsory powers in an impeachment investigation”.

He warned Mr Comer and Mr Jordan that their effort to have the full House approve a contempt citation against his client won’t hold water because the House had not yet approved the impeachment probe when his client was served with the subpoenas at issue.

He also pointed out that both GOP representatives had cried foul when the House investigated Mr Trump and issued subpoenas to White House aides before formally approving that inquiry.

“I write to make you aware (if you are not already) that your subpoenas were and are legally invalid and cannot form a legal basis to proceed with your misdirected and impermissible contempt resolution,” Mr Lowell wrote. “And you two, of all people, should know that is the case.”

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