WASHINGTON — Hunter Biden appeared this Wednesday for a closed-door interrogation with legislators, at a time when the investigation launched by Republicans into the shady business of the family of US President Joe Biden is advancing rapidly.
Biden has tried to discredit the Congressional investigation, especially a few months before the presidential elections in November and when all polls give an advantage of between 6 and 8 points to Donald Trump; even without being yet officially the Republican candidate for the White House.
Republicans have found the Biden family businesses to be the best definition of corruption and influence peddling by Joe Biden, particularly when he was vice president in Barack Obama’s administration.
Conservatives in Congress are looking for more evidence of illegality on the part of the president, when there is testimony that directly incriminates him.
Republicans do not expect Hunter Biden to reveal valuable information, but they have subpoenaed him to take his statements on the record and counter them with reports and other testimony to demonstrate whether his claims are false. And that is the main objective of the interrogation, after his main business partner issued his arguments as part of the investigation. The same thing happened with President James Biden’s brother.
Double level justice
Hunter is also under federal investigation and has been charged with nine counts of federal tax violations and one count of weapons possession in Delaware, meaning he can refuse to answer questions citing the Fifth Amendment.
But Republicans are looking beyond the slight accusations from the Biden administration’s Justice Department that it has shown notable tolerance for the crimes committed by the president’s son and Biden himself.
Recently, Joe Biden was exonerated of federal charges in the face of accusations and investigations into the storage of top-secret documents and their disclosure, without the slightest legal and constitutional post as vice president of the country to do so. On the other hand, Donald Trump is being prosecuted with all possible rigor for the same issue, with the difference that he as President had the constitutional power to declassify documents and take personal documents. All American presidents have done so at the end of their terms.
The task of questioning Hunter falls primarily to Republican Congressmen James Comer and Jim Jordan, who are leading the investigation.
Both initially called Hunter Biden to testify in November, demanding that he appear privately. But he and his lawyers refused. Finally, Hunter Biden was forced to testify in public under threats of facing legal charges for obstruction of a congressional investigation.
The day he was called to testify, Hunter Biden not only defied the legislators who were waiting for him in a hearing room, but he did so by offering a press conference right outside the Capitol, where he denounced the investigation into his family.
“Our commissions have an obligation to question Hunter Biden, a key witness in our impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, about his evidence,” said Comer, head of the Commission on Oversight and Government Reform.
“This questioning is not the conclusion of the impeachment investigation. There will be more subpoenas and more interviews with witnesses,” she argued.
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Source: With information from AP.
