Last month, President Joe Biden’s son Hunter defied a congressional subpoena for a closed-door deposition during his father’s impeachment inquiry.
Now, after months of defiance, Hunter Biden has finally agreed to appear before House Republicans for a private deposition.
The House Oversight Committee announced Thursday that they’ve convinced Hunter Biden to sit for an interview 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.
Comer added that Hunter Biden will be able to testify publicly sometime after his deposition.
In a statement, the committee added it would first try to interview several Biden associates, including the president’s brother James Biden.
“As part of the impeachment inquiry of President Joe Biden, the Committees on Oversight and Accountability and Judiciary will conduct transcribed interviews with several Biden family members and associates in the coming weeks,” the committee explained.
Hunter Biden’s legal team confirmed the news Thursday to national media.
Some House leaders, like Majority Leader Steve Scalise, were threatening to vote on a resolution to hold Hunter Biden in contempt, but the House called off the contempt resolution Tuesday to give the lawyers more time for negotiations.
The committee first subpoenaed the younger Biden in November, demanding an appearance before lawmakers in a private setting by mid-December.
As of Friday, other people involved in the impeachment inquiry have given closed-door depositions. For example, Hunter Biden’s art dealer was deposed earlier this month.
However, Hunter Biden and his attorneys refused to comply with the private interview. They accused the House Republicans of planning to selectively leak his out-of-context remarks. Instead, Hunter demanded to testify in public.
When Republicans denied those terms, Hunter Biden and his attorneys made two separate appearances at the U.S. Capitol, further angering congressional investigators. In both instances, Biden again refused to testify privately, instead delivering statements to the press where he defended his business affairs and castigated the yearslong investigations into him and his family.
Hunter Biden said outside the Capitol last month, “There is no fairness or decency in what these Republicans are doing — they have lied over and over about every aspect of my personal and professional life — so much so that their lies have become the false facts believed by too many people.”
Hunter Biden and his legal team appeared to shift gears late last week when they sent a letter to Comer and Rep. Jim Jordan, the chair of the House Judiciary Committee, indicating a willingness for the first time to come in for a private deposition.
Abbe Lowell, Hunter Biden’s attorney, wrote in a letter Friday that his client’s cooperation is dependent on the committee issuing a new subpoena, which they will now do given the updated deposition date. They had argued that the two subpoenas sent in last year were not legitimate because they were issued before the full House authorized the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.
The impeachment inquiry into the president, which began in September, has focused heavily on Hunter Biden and his international business affairs, questioning whether the president profited from that work.
House Republicans have described the impeachment inquiry as necessary for proving the extent of Joe Biden’s involvement in his son’s business dealings.
One top Democrat claimed the Biden impeachment inquiry will fall apart after Hunter Biden’s testimony.
“I suspect that he will be the final nail in the coffin of what is a completely bogus impeachment investigation based on what he said publicly previously,” Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., told CNN’s Manu Raju on Thursday.
“I’m eager for him to come in, set the record straight, and respond to the slanderous attacks that have been made against him by Republicans for years now.”
In any case, Americans will find out on Feb. 28, if Hunter Biden follows through on his agreement.
The Horn editorial team and the Associated Press contribtued to this article.