What Hunter Biden's shocking House committee appearance means for 2024 (and what it doesn't)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Hunter Biden makes a surprise appearance on Capitol Hill before the House Oversight Committee.
Read this article for free! Plus get unlimited access to thousands of articles, videos and more with your free account! Please enter a valid email address.NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
Low on law, high on theater. That's the best way of looking at Hunter Biden's Capitol Hill stunt Wednesday morning. The president's son crashed a public meeting at which the House Oversight Committee was slated to vote on a resolution, based on which the full House would eventually hold him in contempt of Congress — ironically, for defying a subpoena demanding that he show up at the Capitol so the committee could depose him.
I say "low on law" because, in the absence of enforcement, law is just a talking point.
In the federal justice system, for example, we have enforcement: If you defy a subpoena, the FBI arrests you, the judge can hold you in contempt and imprison you until you agree to comply, and the Justice Department can prosecute you criminally for your defiance, even if you have attempted in the interim to cure it. You are apt to be convicted and spend even more time in the slammer.
That's why people don't defy subpoenas backed by court-enforcement. And because contempt in the justice system is a legal process with real teeth, people don't attempt stunts, like Hunter's, that try to hoodwink people into believing they've complied when they haven't. That insults the intelligence. Pro tip: Not a good idea to insult a federal judge's intelligence.
Hunter is defying the Republican-controlled House because, if you'll pardon the pun, he knows he's playing with the house money.
In our constitutional system of separated powers, Congress makes the laws but the executive branch — the Justice Department — enforces them. Congress can conduct oversight and it can vote to brand recalcitrant witnesses as contemners. But it cannot prosecute them. Only the DOJ can do that.
I know this will come as a shock, but Hunter and his lawyers are very confident that the Biden Justice Department will not prosecute the president's son at the request of a Republican-controlled House, which the Biden White House habitually scorns for threatening to impeach the president and portrays as harassing the ne'er-do-well Hunter.
Hunter Biden, son of President Biden, follows his attorney Abbe Lowell, right, as they depart the House Rayburn Office Building following a surprise appearance at a House Oversight Committee markup and meeting to vote on whether to hold Biden in contempt of Congress for failing to respond to a request to testify to the House last month on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. (REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque)
What about Steve Bannon? What about Peter Navarro? Yes, yes, I know, these are Trump advisers whom the Biden Justice Department prosecuted for flouting subpoenas from the vaunted House Jan. 6 Committee. Citing the Bannon and Navarro precedents, Republicans maintain that Biden's attorney general, Merrick Garland, and Biden's appointed U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., Matthew Graves, must indict Hunter for contempt. Otherwise, that will illustrate the corruptness of the administration's "two-tiered system of justice."
Dream on.
There is no doubt that the Biden-era has been a boom time for two-tiered justice. But here's the thing: The Democrats know they can't suffer more political damage over it than they already have.
Remember, Democratic prosecutors in Washington and across the country have indicted former President Donald Trump, Biden's likely 2024 opponent, not once but four times — all methodically timed to have maximum impact on the election. They have turned a blind eye to months of lethal violence by the radical left, yet prosecuted 1,200 people — most of them sad sacks — in connection with a three-hour riot at the Capitol in which the only person killed was a rioter.
- next Image 1 of 2
Hunter Biden, son of President Biden, follows his attorney Abbe Lowell, right, as they depart the House Rayburn Office Building following a surprise appearance at a House Oversight Committee markup and meeting to vote on whether to hold Biden in contempt of Congress for failing to respond to a request to testify to the House last month on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 10, 2024.(REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque)
- prev Image 2 of 2
Hunter Biden, son of President Biden, sits with his attorney Abbe Lowell, right, as he makes a surprise appearance at a House Oversight Committee markup and meeting to vote on whether to hold Biden in contempt of Congress for failing to respond to a request to testify to the House last month on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 10, 2024.(REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque)
Simultaneously, the Biden Justice Department intentionally let the statute of limitations expire on Biden family influence-peddling transactions that occurred when Biden was vice-president. Plus, the DOJ was shamed into indicting Hunter on longstanding tax and gun offenses only after prosecutors tried to make the case disappear in a shameful sweetheart plea deal. Even when the tax indictment was finally filed, prosecutors took pains not to mention the president's name in it. And no sensible person doubts that, once the 2024 election is over, President Biden will pardon his son.
Look, the two-tiered justice ship has sailed. Whatever political damage it can do to Biden's re-election bid, it has already done. Attorney General Merrick Garland is already up to his neck in preferential treatment for hapless Hunter; a little more is not going to matter.
Garland, moreover, has a story to tell. Historically speaking, the Bannon and Navarro indictments are the exception. For decades before that, the Justice Department virtually never prosecuted people for defying congressional subpoenas. And even in the Jan. 6 Committee crusade, Garland declined demands by the then-Democratic-controlled Congress that he prosecute Trump aides Mark Meadows and Dan Scavino for contempt. There's lots of precedent supporting declination.
What's more, because the sweetheart plea deal collapsed and the attendant publicity was so damaging, Hunter is already facing two indictments. It is true that the law calls for him to show up to a deposition if he has been subpoenaed, but it doesn't require him to testify — he has a Fifth Amendment privilege to refuse to provide self-incriminating testimony.
If he had shown up for the Oversight Committee deposition, Hunter would have taken the Fifth. That would have been politically damaging to his father — which is why Hunter is trying to fool the public into thinking the bad Republicans are preventing him from testifying.
Nevertheless, in exercising prosecutorial discretion, the Biden Justice Department will rationalize that the House subpoena was itself a political stunt because the Committee knows Hunter's lawyers would advise him not to answer questions.
The Biden DOJ will say Republicans issued the subpoena because they knew the president's son would refuse to testify — i.e., they're trying to score political points, not conduct a good faith investigation.
My advice: Don't hold your breath waiting for the big Hunter contempt indictment.
But if you're a Republican, don't be too broken up about that dereliction.
This is politics, not law, and every day the attention of American voters is drawn to the president's son is a bad day for the president.
Andrew C. McCarthy is a senior fellow at the National Review Institute and a contributing editor of National Review. Follow him on Twitter @andrewcmccarthy
Tags
Who is online
527 visitors
After prosecuting two Trump associates for not complying with a subpoena the Garland justice department will not lift a finger to do the same to Hunter Biden and they don't give a damn how it looks. The left is giving the entire country the bird.
The doj doesn’t even try to hide its bias
Wherever the left is in power there is no need.
We have a radical leftist media and a corrupt DOJ. That makes it a slam dunk.
Eric Swalwell stole the show yesterday when he noted that Jim Jordan, the serious half of the Comer-Jordan clown show, has been in defiance of a subpoena issued to him for over 600 days.
No, you cant make this stuff up.
Must have been a pretty boring show if that was the highlight.
From the illegitimate Jan 6th Committee that Pelosi selected.
Two Trump aids were prosecuted to the full extent of the law for defying subpoenas. Just about everyone else was allowed to slide including Eric Holder.
How do the Republicans on that committee justify outrage against Hunter Biden when one of their own members has been in defiance of a subpoena for over 600 days ?
Its laughable.
I notice Andrew McCarthy didnt bring that up.
Here is the thing. Almost everyone has been allowed to defy congressional subpoenas over the years, but it was Biden's DOJ that broke with precedent and actually prosecuted two Trump aids.
The hypocrisy is on the democrats.
Can you figure out the difference between hunter Biden and a member of congress?
also, Jordan did respond and the house accepted his response. It’s not the same thing, at all.
You're right. Its worse for a member of Congress to refuse to co-operate with a congressional committee.
And much more hypocritical for that same member of Congress to demand someone else be penalized for doing the same thing he did.
The only thing laughable is the left making excuses for the Brandon Administration, Garland/,DOJ, and Wray/FBI destroying our justice system.
Brandon had better not try to lecture any other countries on the legal systems- it will be thrown right back in his face.
It is far worse for the Speaker of the House to defy all norms an not sit selected members of the opposition on the committee. Then to personally select two members herself from the opposition to sit in their stead.
The entire Jan 6th committee was a partisan TDS driven shit show made for tv. It had nothing to do with finding out what really happened on Jan 6th; nor trying to prevent it from happening again.
Hopefully Republicans will follow through and impeach Garland if he doesn't prosecute Hunter. The amount of leftist copeium needed to deal with that would be priceless to watch.
Lol.
Also, kudos on just completely skipping this part:
Jordan did respond to the subpoena and the House accepted his response.
That's what happens when you have partisan hacks running shit. The hypocrisy of the Democrats on full display.
And I didn't need a crystal ball.
Waiting for the usual suspects to show up to claim that they didn't vote for Hunter, that Joe is innocent and this is just partisan bitching.
Wonder if they'll have anything new to bring in, the standard lines are getting rather old.
[deleted]
I believe he has.
He makes that obvious every day.
Except he sat in the front row making sure they did notice him. Yet all republicans were so afraid of him they refused to swear him in and question while he was there.
Does Hunter run the Committee?
It is standard practice for the Committee to get private depositions first. They didn't let Steve Bannon do it.
Except Hunter and his lawyers (who need to reconsider their career choices for allow this stunt) first have to have a private deposition by the committee. That is protocol that even leftists should know. If Hunter wanted a public deposition in front of the committee afterwards the Republicans already said they would have granted it.
As it was Hunter fled after 17 minutes- seems that Mace's remarks were more than his bladder could handle.
Great stunt by Hunter's lawyer. He should be disbarred for allowing his client to be that moronic. Brandon had better not expect any cooperation from House Republicans on any level after this.
Even the subpoena stated it was for a deposition and not a hearing. Everybody should read the actual subpoena for themselves.
Subpoena-Robert-Hunter-Biden.pdf (house.gov)
Hunter left when MTG decided to whip out her poster of Hunter's genitalia. She seems to have a thing about that genitalia.
Subpoena was AFTER Comer invited him to testify either publicly or privately. Unfortunately Hunter chose publicly making Comer a liar when he reneged on the invite.
The subpoena is the legal document and that definitely stated that he was to come in for a deposition. You can continue with the partisan games but in late reporting today the House is moving forward with holding Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress over this.
Wait until you see what his lawyers are trying to pull now
I see that Hunter's team has issued a new statement.
Is this to provide cover for the DOJ so they can ignore any contempt prosecution as Hunter is attempting to comply? Or simply to gain more time where they will again just negotiate to try to avoid a deposition? I've heard several legal scholars who all said that now that the Impeachment Inquiry was formally voted on that a new subpoena should be issued. Personally I think this is just another attempt to delay the inevitable but we shall see.