Hunter Biden held a surprise press conference in Washington, D.C., early Wednesday in lieu of a closed-door deposition with House Republicans, vowing to “correct how the MAGA right has portrayed me for their political purposes” and set the record straight publicly instead of answering questions behind closed doors.
“I’m here today to make sure that the House committee’s illegitimate investigations of my family do not proceed on distortions, manipulated evidence, and lies,” Biden told reporters.
“And I’m here today to acknowledge that I have made mistakes in my life and wasted opportunities and privileges I was afforded. For that I am responsible. For that I am accountable. And for that I am making amends,” he said.
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The president’s son had been served a subpoena to testify before the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees as Republicans push ahead with an impeachment inquiry into his father. The younger Biden has repeatedly offered to appear publicly for questioning, but Republicans rejected that format and threatened to hold him in contempt of Congress if he would not comply with the subpoena.
On the eve of the deposition, Abbe Lowell, Hunter Biden’s lawyer, said Republicans “use closed-door sessions to manipulate, even distort the facts and misinform the public.” But it remained unclear if he might still actually show up for questioning.
His makeshift presser—right across from the building where GOP lawmakers were meant to question him—came hours before Republicans planned to hold a vote on formally launching an impeachment investigation into his father.
The investigation involves unsubstantiated allegations that President Joe Biden benefited from the foreign business dealings of his family members, a claim which his son denied Wednesday.
“Let me state as clearly as I can, my father was not financially involved in my business, not as a practicing lawyer, not as a board member of Burisma, not in my partnership with the Chinese private businessman, not in my investments at home and abroad and certainly not as an artist,” he said, adding: “There is no evidence to support the allegations that my father was financially involved in my business because it did not happen.”
The president’s son is facing a lengthy prison sentence after he was indicted on tax evasion charges last week, the second indictment against him this year. Just a few months earlier, he pleaded not guilty to three gun charges brought against him in an indictment by the Justice Department related to his possession of a firearm as an alleged drug user in 2018.
While he didn’t comment on those charges Wednesday, he lashed out at what he described as a “shameless” Republican crusade to vilify him and take “the light of my dad’s love for me” and present it “as darkness.”
“For six years, MAGA Republicans, including members of the House committees who are in a closed-door session right now, have impugned my character, invaded my privacy, attacked my wife, my children, my family, and my friends. They have ridiculed my struggle with addiction, they have belittled my recovery and they have tried to dehumanize me, all to embarrass and damage my father who has devoted his entire public life to service. For six years I have been the target of the unrelenting Trump attack machine shouting, ‘Where’s Hunter?’ Well, here is my answer: I am here.”
