George Washington University Law School professor Jonathan Turley wrote Thursday that Hunter Biden’s refusal to testify during a closed-door deposition was an “unenforced error” that opened “a new potential front for prosecution.”
Biden could have sat for his deposition and simply plead the Fifth, Turley wrote Thursday, but instead he opened himself up to being held in contempt of Congress by holding a public press conference outside the Capitol. House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan announced Wednesday that they would initiate contempt of Congress proceedings.
“That will force the hand of Attorney General Merrick Garland, who aggressively pursued Trump figures for contempt, including former Trump adviser Steve Bannon,” Turley wrote. “Despite some of us writing to the contrary, Bannon claimed his lawyers told him he did not have to appear before a House committee. He was swiftly charged and convicted by Garland’s prosecutors.”
Read: Johnathan Turley Says Hunter Biden Is In ‘Flagrant Contempt Of Congress’
The Oversight Committee sent a subpoena to Hunter Biden on Nov. 8 requiring him to appear for a deposition. Turley wrote that Hunter may “find himself indicted within a few weeks” if the law is applied to him the same as it was to Steve Bannon, who was indicted in November after being held in contempt of Congress in October for failing to comply with a subpoena.
The younger Biden said during his press conference Wednesday that his father “was not financially involved” in his business. Turley told Fox News host Laura Ingraham on Wednesday that he has “rarely seen such open contempt for Congress” and that he “can’t come up with a legal rationale for what they did.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Wednesday that President Joe Biden was “very familiar with what Hunter was going to say” when asked if he tried to talk his son out of defying a congressional subpoena.
“If this latest allegation is true, the president was speaking with his son about committing a potentially criminal act of contempt,” Turley wrote. “Hunter was refusing to give testimony focused not on his own role but on his father’s potential role in the alleged influence peddling.”
He wrote that Hunter may have “just tripped another wire that could seriously complicate matters not just himself but for his father.”
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