NEW YORK – “In the depths of my drug addiction, I did financially irresponsible things and I am liable for them.” But to think that this could be grounds for an investigation into my father's impeachment is more than absurd: it is shameful. I am prepared to testify publicly before the House of Representatives, not behind closed doors. For six years I have been in the crosshairs of Trump's attack machine: I do not accept that my words will be used – as Republicans have done for years – to misinform by leaking selected portions of statements to confirm misleading, false reconstructions.”
On Wednesday morning, the day on which he was asked by the House Oversight Committee to testify in relation to a possible impeachment trial against the President of the United States – the formalization of which is expected in these hours – Hunter Biden went to Congress, but only in front of American television cameras declare that he is ready to testify, but only in open court: “Here I am, here I am: ready to give answers to legitimate questions that everyone needs to be able to hear without manipulation.” James Comer, Jim Jordan, Jason Smith (the most influential and active Republican lawmakers in trying to impeach the president, editor's note) and others falsified facts from bank documents, manipulated my text messages, used personal information stolen from me and you have the statements of my friends and business associates maliciously edited. “What the Republicans are doing is wrong and indecent.”
The reaction of the Republicans, who now control the House of Representatives and are on the offensive against the president, was not long in coming: “It is not up to him to decide how he should be questioned, we will not allow Hunter Biden imposed the rules on us,” said James Comer, president of the Oversight Commission. And then: “We will not give him discounts because he is the son of the president, we will charge him with contempt of Congress”: contempt of Congress and refusing to comply with a subpoena, which constitutes a legally binding subpoena. Subsequently, Republicans in the House of Representatives continued to prepare for the vote that would authorize the House of Representatives to open a formal investigation into Biden's impeachment in these hours. A knife-edge vote: Since the Democrats seem to be united in favor of the “no” vote, the scandal-ridden right has a majority of just three votes after the expulsion of George Santos. There likely won't be any defections, but many conservative lawmakers are known to be perplexed by the decision to begin impeachment proceedings without evidence of the president's involvement in his son's mistakes and crimes.
Faced with the prospect of years – and perhaps decades – in prison for the two charges that have already been brought before the judiciary for crimes that are not particularly serious (possessing weapons for 11 days without mentioning drug addiction and unpaid taxes for four years, which were then paid later). and complete), Hunter risks relatively little by refusing to testify in Congress: the oversight commission must reconvene, declare him in contempt, and hand the case over to the chamber, which must vote on the prosecution request. Application which, if approved, will be reviewed by the Ministry of Justice, which will be responsible for deciding whether to proceed or not. It is likely that Secretary Merrick Garland, always eager to demonstrate his independence from the White House by entrusting the criminal investigation against Hunter Biden to a Trump-appointed judge, will send the case to the capital's appeals court for possible sanction . The (tendentially progressive) judges will probably take into account his willingness to testify publicly: if it is true that it is not up to the witness to decide how he is questioned, it is also true that subpoenas are about the modalities The terms of the meeting are usually agreed between the member of the panel and the lawyers of the person named above.
However, they represent additional pressure and stress for the President, who, even without evidence, is dragged into a trial from which he is certain to be acquitted (the verdict is approved today by two-thirds of the votes of a Senate with a Democratic majority), but what the case will be used in the media to offset the effect of the trials against Trump. And Papa Joe realizes that his son's crimes wouldn't be prosecuted so severely if he weren't president. Hunter himself said it in a decidedly dramatic tone after the second accusation: “They want to kill me to beat my father.”