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Hunter Biden Defiant in Closed-Door Deposition on Capitol Hill

WASHINGTON (AP) ÔÇö Hunter Biden was defiant Wednesday in a closed-door deposition on Capitol Hill, blasting a Republican impeachment inquiry into his father and the familyÔÇÖs business affairs as a ÔÇ£house of cardsÔÇØ built on ÔÇ£liesÔÇØ as he faced a battery of probing questions from lawmakers.

ÔÇ£For more than a year, your Committees have hunted me in your partisan political pursuit of my dad,ÔÇØ Hunter Biden said in an opening statement obtained by The Associated Press. He accused Republicans of trafficking in ÔÇ£innuendo, distortion, and sensationalismÔÇØ and insisted, ÔÇ£I did not involve my father in my business.ÔÇØ

But Republicans remained undeterred by Hunter BidenÔÇÖs repudiation of their investigation during the six-plus hours of testimony. Rep. James Comer, one of the GOP chairmen leading the inquiry, came out late Wednesday to declare that it was a ÔÇ£great deposition,ÔÇØ and said it helped back several pieces of evidence theyÔÇÖve gathered thus far.

ÔÇ£But there are also some contradictory statements that I think need further review,ÔÇØ the Kentucky Republican said, adding that the next forum for that will be a public hearing with Hunter Biden at a future date.

The deposition of President Joe BidenÔÇÖs son marked a decisive point for the 14-month Republican investigation into the Biden family. The probe has centered on Hunter Biden and his overseas work for clients in Ukraine, China, Romania, and other countries. Republicans have long questioned whether those business dealings involved corruption and influence peddling by President Biden, particularly when he was vice president.

Yet after conducting dozens of interviews and obtaining more than 100,000 pages of documents, Republicans have yet to produce direct evidence of misconduct by the president. Meanwhile, an FBI informant who alleged a bribery scheme involving the Bidens ÔÇö a claim Republicans had cited repeatedly to justify their probe ÔÇö is facing charges from federal prosecutors who accuse him of fabricating the story.

Despite the stakes of their investigation, it was unclear in the end how much useful information Republicans could extract from Hunter Biden during the deposition. He is under federal investigation and has been indicted on nine federal tax charges and a firearm charge in Delaware, which means he could refuse to answer some questions by asserting his Fifth Amendment rights.

But by midday, Hunter Biden had not asserted those rights, according to Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., one of the members inside the deposition. Instead, Mace told reporters Wednesday that the presidentÔÇÖs son had provided testimony in the first hour that was ÔÇ£defiant and dishonest.ÔÇØ

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The majority of Republicans remained quiet as the deposition dragged into the afternoon, with Comer and Rep. Jim Jordan, the GOP chairmen leading the inquiry, declined to answer reportersÔÇÖ questions in the hallways. They both cited the sensitivity of a private deposition.

Democrats on the Oversight and Judiciary Committees came out several times to denounce the deposition, calling it an ÔÇ£embarrassing spectacle where the Republicans continued to belabor completely trivial points.ÔÇØ

ÔÇ£This thing is over. A referee would stop the fight if this was a boxing match. A coroner would pronounce this thing dead,ÔÇØ Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., said about the ongoing impeachment inquiry.

He added that Hunter Biden had ÔÇ£leaned inÔÇØ and had not been afraid to answer any of the questions. ÔÇ£In fact, heÔÇÖs challenged a number of Republicans about their baseless theories,ÔÇØ Swalwell said.

The task of interviewing Hunter fell primarily to Comer and Jordan. They first subpoenaed Hunter Biden in November, demanding that he appear before lawmakers in a private setting. Biden and his attorneys refused, warning that his testimony could be selectively leaked and manipulated. They insisted that he would only testify in public.

On the day of the subpoena, Hunter Biden not only snubbed lawmakers waiting for him in a hearing room ÔÇö he did so while appearing right outside the Capitol, holding a press conference where he denounced the investigation into his family.

Both sides ultimately agreed in January to a private deposition with a set of conditions. The interview with Hunter Biden was not filmed, and Republicans have agreed to quickly release the transcript.

Hunter is the second member of the Biden family questioned by Republicans in recent days. They conducted a more than eight-hour interview last week with James Biden, the presidentÔÇÖs brother. He insisted to lawmakers that Joe Biden has ÔÇ£never had any involvement,ÔÇØ financially or otherwise, in his business ventures.

Looming large over the interview are developments on the other side of the country in Nevada, where federal prosecutors this month indicted an FBI informant, Alexander Smirnov, who claimed there was a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme involving the president, his son Hunter, and a Ukrainian energy company. Prosecutors in court documents assert that Smirnov has had ÔÇ£extensive and extremely recentÔÇØ contact with people who are aligned with Russian intelligence.

SmirnovÔÇÖs attorneys have said he is presumed innocent.

Republicans pressed the FBI last summer over the informantÔÇÖs claims, demanding to see the underlying documents and ultimately releasing the unverified information to the public. The claim was cited repeatedly in letters that House Republicans sent to impeachment witnesses.

Many GOP lawmakers say they have yet to see evidence of the ÔÇ£high crimes and misdemeanorsÔÇØ required for impeachment, despite alleged efforts by members of the Biden family to leverage the last name into corporate paydays domestically and abroad.

But Comer and Jordan remain unmoved by the series of setbacks to their marquee investigation. Jordan, who is the chair of the House Judiciary Committee, said last week that the informantÔÇÖs indictment ÔÇ£does not change the fundamental factsÔÇØ that the Biden family tried to benefit off the family name in several overseas businesses.

And Comer told Fox News on Tuesday that Smirnov was never ÔÇ£a key part of this investigation.ÔÇØ

Both men have insisted for the past year that their investigation and inquiry is focused solely on Joe Biden and what actions, if any, he took while as vice president or president to benefit his family. But at nearly every turn, their probe has had a consistent and heavy focus on Hunter Biden. Several lines of inquiry have been opened into HunterÔÇÖs international business affairs, his artwork sales, and even his personal life and on-and-off battle with addiction.

Meanwhile, Hunter Biden has no shortage of legal headaches off Capitol Hill as he faces criminal charges in two states from a special counsel investigation. HeÔÇÖs charged with firearm counts in Delaware, alleging he broke laws against drug users having guns in 2018, a period when he has acknowledged struggling with addiction. Special counsel David Weiss filed additional charges late last year, alleging he failed to pay about $1.4 million in taxes over three years.

He has pleaded not guilty in both cases.

Associated Press writers Stephen Groves and video journalists Nathan Ellgren and Rick Gentilo contributed to this report.

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