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House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) told reporters on Wednesday following Hunter Biden’s behind-closed-doors testimony before his panel and the House Judiciary Committee what the next steps likely are in President Joe Biden’s impeachment inquiry.
Comer said the GOP will be moving into its “next phase” that could include having Hunter return for public testimony, though the first son’s attorney threw cold water on that, Fox News Digital reported.
Hunter’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, told reporters: “The transcripts of witnesses who have been called to date, including Hunter’s, makes it obvious that there is nothing left to ask, answer, say or do. This illegitimate inquiry should have ended long before their star witness was indicted for lying but it wasn’t. Now that Hunter has put this partisan conspiracy to the lie that it is — on the record and under oath — this political charade should finally come to an end.”
Hunter testified that he “did not involve” his father in his businesses while heavily criticizing House Republicans for having “hunted” him in a “partisan political pursuit” and impeachment inquiry against the president.
In addition, Lowell also said the GOP has no evidence against his father, the president, “because there isn’t any.”
Fox News added:
Comer, R-Ky., made a public statement Wednesday afternoon, saying that Hunter’s appearance “was a great deposition for us.”
Hunter, however, thought the deposition went well for him. On his way out of the hearing room Wednesday, he told reporters he thought the hearing went “great.”
A source with direct knowledge of the deposition told Fox News Digital that Hunter “first made clear in his opening statement and emphasized throughout the deposition, Joe Biden was not involved in, did not benefit from, and took no official actions to benefit any of his business ventures.”
In reference to the “10 held by H for the big guy?” email, the source claimed that Hunter told the congressional committee that the business associate who sent the message, James Gilliar, was “out of his mind for even suggesting Joe Biden get involved in their joint venture.”
“Hunter discussed his addiction at length,” the source noted further, going on to explain that Hunter “admitted that he was high or drunk when he sent the ‘sitting here with my father’ WhatsApp message, sent it to the wrong recipient, and is now embarrassed by the message.”
The text was sent to a business partner for Chinese energy firm CEFC, Fox News Digital noted.
Comer stressed that Hunter and his attorney have “demanded” a public hearing following the deposition.
“Just as I said, when we said we were going to do the deposition first, we will have a public hearing next,” he explained. “So I think that the public hearing hopefully will clear up some discrepancies between some of the statements that were made between some of the associates and what we heard today.”
Last November, in fact, Howell declared that “Hunter is eager to have the opportunity, in a public forum and at the right time, to discuss these matters with the Committee” after the first son blew off two congressional subpoenas.
In sum, the Kentucky Republican said “all in all,” he is “very optimistic, very excited about this deposition.”
“I look forward to releasing the transcripts as soon as both sides agree to that,” Comer said, hinting that the first son’s transcript of his deposition could be released to the public by the end of the week. “Hopefully, that’ll be within the next two or three days.”
In an opening statement that Hunter made to the committee, according to a copy obtained by Fox News, the first son testified that he was there “to provide the Committees with the one uncontestable fact that should end the false premise of this inquiry: I did not involve my father in my business.”
