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Jan. 5 (UPI) -- The House Oversight Committee on Friday said it will proceed with an effort to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress. The committee set a Jan. 10 date for a markup on a resolution and accompanying report to hold Hunter Biden in contempt for violating its subpoena for him to testify privately in a House impeachment inquiry into his father, President Joe Biden.
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"Hunter Biden's willful refusal to comply with our subpoenas constitutes contempt of Congress and warrants referral to the appropriate United States Attorney's Office for prosecution," Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., and Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said in a joint statement. "We will not provide him with special treatment because of his last name."
Comer cited Hunter Biden's decision to hold a press conference on Capitol Hill on Dec. 13 in which he declared he was willing to testify publicly in the impeachment inquiry but refused to meet the committee's request that he testify in private.
"We planned to question Hunter Biden about his record of evidence, but he blatantly defied two lawful subpoenas, choosing to read a prepared statement outside of the Capitol instead of appearing for testimony as required," Comer and Jordan said.
During the press conference, Hunter Biden said he was at the Capitol, hours before the House formally voted to authorize the impeachment inquiry into his father, "to testify at a public hearing" and "answer the committee's questions."
Republicans had previously rejected his offer to testify publicly and warned they would move to hold him in contempt of Congress if he did not reply with the request for private testimony.
On Dec. 28, Comer and Jordan announced they would expand their impeachment investigation to include whether Joe Biden was involved in that decision after White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters the president was "certainly familiar with what his son was going to say" at the press conference.
House Republicans began investigating the president and his family immediately upon gaining control of the House in 2022, seeking to determine whether the family enriched themselves through deals Hunter Biden made when he served on the board of the Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma from 2014 to 2019.
The Oversight Committee sought Hunter Biden's testimony as they alleged an investigation had "produced significant evidence suggesting President Biden knew of, participated in and benefitted from his family cashing in on the Biden name."
Hunter Biden, who was indicted Dec. 7 by special counsel David Weiss on three felony and six misdemeanor federal tax charges for allegedly failing to pay taxes, failing to file some tax returns and filing fraudulent tax returns, said during the Dec. 13 press conference that he had "made mistakes in his personal life" but said the impeachment inquiry was a Republican effort to "dehumanize me all to embarrass and damage my father."
Joe Biden dismissed the impeachment inquiry as a political stunt and House Democrats have argued that Republicans authorized it without evidence.
"There is no evidence that President Biden has engaged in an impeachable offense. There is no evidence that President Joe Biden has engaged in wrongdoing. There is no evidence that President Biden has broken the law," Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said in a statement when the inquiry was approved.
The probe has also faced criticism from some Republicans, as Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Dec. 17 that the House Republican Biden impeachment investigation is "falling apart" and has failed to produce anything of substance against the president.
