Hunter Biden declines to testify in public hearing on GOP impeachment inquiry

March 13 (UPI) -- Hunter Biden will not attend a public hearing on the House impeachment inquiry into his father, President Joe Biden, scheduled for next week his attorneys told lawmakers Wednesday.

Abbe Lowell, an attorney for Hunter Biden, wrote in a letter to House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., that his client "declines your invitation to this carnival side show" and will not appear at a March 20 public impeachment hearing.

"I must confess my surprise by your hasty request. 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 said.

He noted that Republicans wanted Biden to appear the day before he is to appear in court in California on a criminal tax charge but asserted that was "the least of the issues" with the request, citing federal charges against Alexander Smirnov, a former FBI informant who prosecutors said lied about the Bidens' involvement in Ukrainian energy company Burisma.

Smirnov, a key witness that Republicans based much of their impeachment inquiry on, was re-arrested after prosecutors asserted there was a strong risk Smirnov would use Russian intelligence contacts to flee the United States before his trial.

"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," said Lowell.

Comer told NBC News the committee would move ahead with the hearing as intended, adding it had "called Hunter Biden's bluff" after he previously requested public testimony as he refused to testify privately before the committee.

"Hunter Biden for months stated he wanted a public hearing, but now that one has been offered alongside his business associates that he worked with for years, he is refusing to come," he said.

Hunter Biden ultimately complied and testified in a six-hour session on Feb. 28 after lawmakers threatened to hold him in contempt of Congress.

He said in an opening statement that he never involved his father in his businesses.