Hunter Biden refuses to attend House hearing with former business associates

Hunter Biden will not attend a House Oversight Committee hearing next week regarding alleged influence peddling and the Biden family's business dealings, his lawyer said in a letter Wednesday.

Committee Chairman James Comer had invited Hunter Biden and his former business associates – Tony Bobulinski, Devon Archer and Jason Galanis -- to testify at a public hearing on March 20 as part of the ongoing impeachment inquiry against President Biden. 

All four individuals have testified behind closed doors as part of the impeachment inquiry, but Comer said the hearing will "examine inconsistencies among the witnesses’ testimonies in order to get the truth for the American people."

Hunter Biden did appear for a highly anticipated deposition in late Feburary before both the House Oversight and Judiciary committees and maintained that his father was never involved in and never benefited from his businesses. However, Hunter Biden's attorney Abbe Lowell informed Comer in a letter Wednesday obtained by Fox News that his client won't show up to the latest scheduled hearing.

"To begin, even if that hearing was a legitimate exercise of congressional authority, neither Mr. Biden nor I can attend because of a court hearing the very next day in California. The scheduling conflict is the least of the issues, however," Lowell wrote.

"Your blatant planned-for-media event is not a proper proceeding but an obvious attempt to throw a Hail Mary pass after the game has ended," Lowell continued.

"After that six-plus hour deposition on February 28, 2024, along with the realization that your inquiry was based on a patchwork of conspiracies spun by convicted liars and a charged Russian spy, I thought even you would recognize your baseless impeachment proceeding was dead," Lowell continued. "Even before Mr. Biden testified, witness after witness undermined the central premise of your partisan charade. President Biden has done nothing wrong and certainly nothing, even in your misapplication of the impeachment provisions of the Constitution, to warrant further proceedings."

"As Mr. Biden said numerous times, backed up by an accurate reference to the records in the Committees’ possession, his father was never involved in or derived any financial benefit from Mr. Biden’s businesses," Lowell stated, also saying that "Far from the ‘smoking guns’ you claim, the ‘evidence’ does not amount even to droplets from a water pistol."

Comer had said in a statement last Wednesday that "Evidence obtained in the House of Representatives’ impeachment inquiry reveals Joe Biden knew about, participated in, and benefited from his family cashing in on the Biden name."

"Multiple witnesses have testified Joe Biden allowed his family to sell him as ‘the brand’ around the world to enrich the Biden family. Joe Biden met with nearly all of his son’s foreign business associates; attended dinners with foreign oligarchs who collectively funneled his son millions of dollars; spoke on speakerphone with his son’s foreign associates, telling those who did business with his son to be ‘good to my boy’; and had coffee with his son’s Chinese business associate." 

Comer said the Bidens’ "pay-to-play scheme is corrupt and Americans demand accountability."