WASHINGTON — During a long-awaited closed-door deposition on Capitol Hill Wednesday, Hunter Biden disputed claims by House Republicans that President Joe Biden was involved in his son's business dealings.
The deposition was conducted by the House Oversight Committee and the House Judiciary Committee, two GOPc-controlled panels that have been leading an impeachment inquiry into the president.
"I am here today 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," Hunter Biden said in his prepared opening statement. "Not while I was a practicing lawyer, not in my investments or transactions domestic or international, not as a board member, and not as an artist. Never."
In his opening remarks, Hunter Biden also sharply criticized the Republican-led inquiry as a "baseless and destructive political charade" based on "MAGA-motivated conspiracies."
"For more than a year, your committees have hunted me in your partisan political pursuit of my dad," he said. "You have trafficked in innuendo, distortion, and sensationalism — all the while ignoring the clear and convincing evidence staring you in the face. You do not have evidence to support the baseless and MAGA-motivated conspiracies about my father because there isn’t any."
Hunter Biden's attorneys were expected to enter his resume as an exhibit into the record after his opening statement, according to a copy obtained by NBC News. A source close to Hunter Biden’s legal team said they would use the exhibit to make the point that Hunter was qualified for the work he was doing during this period Republicans are focused on.
In an update to reporters during a break in the deposition, House Democrats who attended the interview said Hunter Biden's answers to Republicans' questions so far further prove that there shouldn't be an impeachment inquiry into the president.
"I believe based on this first hour that this whole thing has really been a tremendous waste of our legislative time and the people’s resources," Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., ranking member on the House Oversight Committee, said.
The first hour of the deposition "is the nail in the coffin to what is a completely bogus and sham impeachment inquiry," said Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., who served as Democrats' lead counsel during the first impeachment inquiry into then-President Donald Trump in 2019.
"Hunter Biden gave very detailed and clear explanations as to what his arms-length business transactions were with private parties in foreign countries who are investors and business people," Goldman said.
Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., said that Democrats experienced "second-hand embarrassment" when the Republicans started asking personal details about Hunter Biden's divorce from his wife nearly a decade ago, saying they are "so desperate to humiliate the president."
On the Republican side, Rep. Nancy Mace, of South Carolina, told reporters that the testimony is "bulls--- and a lie and stupid."
"This is not about Hunter Biden’s drug issues, which a lot of families deal with and that’s sad and terrible and tragic and I empathize with their family on that," she said. "This is about pay to play, this is about corruption, this is about selling access to the president of the United States."
Hunter Biden's appearance came a week after James Biden, the president's brother, told lawmakers that at no point during his 50-year business career was Joe Biden involved in his work.
Almost every witness who has testified before the committees has said the president was not involved in his family’s business dealings or has been unable to provide any evidence that his occasional casual encounters with Hunter Biden’s business partners included business discussions.
Oversight Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., challenged that testimony in a statement to NBC News, saying the committees had found evidence to support his often-repeated claim that "Joe Biden was ‘the brand’ his family sold to enrich the Bidens."
Comer said Biden "knew of, participated in, and benefited from these schemes. Joe Biden attended dinners, spoke on speakerphone, showed up to meetings, and had coffee with his son’s foreign business associates. In fact, we’ve documented how Joe Biden has met with nearly all of his son’s foreign business associates as they were collectively funneling millions to the Bidens."
While Republican sources on the Oversight Committee have previously described Biden's testimony as the "crescendo" of the House impeachment inquiry, Comer said it would not be the end of the investigation and promised more subpoenas and witnesses to come, but provided no details on who those might be. He added that congressional investigators would "continue to follow the facts to inform legislative reforms to federal ethics laws and determine whether articles of impeachment are warranted.”
A Republican House Oversight Committee source familiar with the preparations said a transcript of Hunter Biden's deposition would be released “quickly” and Biden's lawyers would have an opportunity to review it beforehand. The source also said the probe would produce a report with legislative or other recommendations and possible criminal referrals "sometime in the next few months."
Republicans first issued a subpoena to Hunter Biden in early November, but through his lawyer, he chose not to comply with it for months. He said he would testify only at a public hearing because he felt he did not trust Republicans in a private setting.
After months of investigation, Republicans have not presented any evidence of wrongdoing by the president, and the White House and Democrats have repeatedly asserted that GOP lawmakers’ claims about Biden are false.
At the center of the impeachment effort is false information that came from former FBI informant Alexander Smirnov, who was indicted this month and accused of feeding the bureau false information about Joe Biden and Hunter Biden during the 2020 presidential campaign.
Smirnov “provided false derogatory information to the FBI” about them, the indictment said, and "promoted a new false narrative after he said he met with Russian officials."
Republicans, however, have shrugged off the news of the charges against Smirnov and are still pursuing their impeachment inquiry despite arguments from Democrats that the issue at the center of it was based on falsehoods.
A Republican House Oversight Committee source told NBC News that "Smirnov was a brick but not the foundation” of the impeachment inquiry. The source said the panel has “lots of unanswered questions” about Smirnov and will place a new focus on the FBI and the confidential human source program going forward.
Hunter Biden mentioned Smirnov in his opening statement, telling GOP lawmakers that the former FBI informant "has made you dupes in carrying out a Russian disinformation campaign waged against my father."
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