Hunter Biden agrees to deposition with House Republicans after months of defiance

Hunter Biden and lawyer Abbe Lowell, left, talk to reporters last week as they leave a House Oversight Committee hearing, where Republicans took the first step toward holding the president’s son in contempt of Congress. ((Jose Luis Magana / Associated Press))

Hunter Biden has agreed to appear before House Republicans for a private deposition next month, ending months of defiance from the president’s son, who had insisted on testifying publicly.

The House Oversight Committee announced Thursday that the two parties had agreed that Hunter Biden will sit for a deposition on Feb. 28.

“His deposition will come after several interviews with Biden family members and associates,” Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), chair of the Oversight Committee, and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), chair of the Judiciary panel, said in a statement. “We look forward to Hunter Biden’s testimony.”

A request for comment from Biden’s attorneys was not immediately returned.

Republicans had been set to send a contempt resolution against him to the House floor this week, but called that move off Tuesday to give the parties additional time to negotiate.

The agreement concludes months of contentious back-and-forth between the Democratic president’s son and the Republicans who have been investigating his overseas business dealings for over a year in an effort, so far futile, to connect his actions to his father.

Republicans, led by Comer and Jordan, first subpoenaed the younger Biden in November, demanding that he appear before lawmakers in a private setting by mid-December. Biden and his attorneys refused to a private interview, saying that it would allow information to be selectively leaked and manipulated by Republicans, and insisting that he would only testify in a public setting.

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 media in defense of his business affairs and castigating the years-long investigations into him and his family.

An impeachment inquiry into the president began in September, focusing heavily on Hunter Biden and his international business affairs, and questioning whether the president profited from that work. It has yet to uncover evidence directly implicating President Biden in wrongdoing involving his son’s work.

Associated Press writer Colleen Long contributed to this report.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.