The Republican-controlled House this week delayed the full House vote on a resolution to hold President Biden’s son Hunter in contempt of Congress after renewed negotiations between Hunter’s attorneys and the Oversight and Judiciary Committees to schedule a new date for Hunter to testify, NBC News reported.
The two committees on January 10 voted to recommend that the full House vote on a resolution to hold Hunter in contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena to appear in a closed-door interview on December 13. Instead of appearing at the closed-door hearing, Hunter staged a press conference outside of the Capitol demanding that he be permitted to publicly testify.
However, following the January 10 votes, Hunter’s attorney Abbe Lowell sent a letter to Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer and Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan on January 12 saying that the subpoena was “legally invalid” since it was issued before the House voted on authorizing the impeachment inquiry into President Biden.
Lowell said if the committees sent a new subpoena, Hunter’s legal team would accept on his behalf.
Chairmen Comer and Jordan agreed to issue a new subpoena for Hunter to testify.
Sources told NBC News on Monday that Comer and Jordan were willing to recommend to House leadership that the full House vote on the contempt of Congress resolution should be put on hold if it appeared that Hunter Biden would genuinely cooperate with the committees and work to schedule a new date for a closed-door interview.
A spokesperson for the Oversight Committee told NBC News that following the exchange of letters between Abbe Lowell and the committees on January 12 and Sunday, January 14, staff for the Oversight and Judiciary Committees and Hunter’s legal team were working on scheduling his appearance.
With the negotiations ongoing, the Rules Committee would not consider a House vote on the contempt resolution this week to allow for “additional time to reach an agreement,” the spokesperson said.
