It looks like Hunter Biden's deposition is one step closer to happening. The House Rules Committee was supposed to be considering a contempt resolution, though that didn't end up happening on Tuesday on account of the winter weather storm. Nevertheless, attorneys for Hunter and the House Oversight Committee and House Judiciary Committee are still making moves to make sure Hunter provides closed-door testimony he was subpoenaed for.
Fox News' Chad Pergram called the update "a major turn of events," revealing a plan to have the House vote on Thursday to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress. House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) has shared that they are working with Hunter's attorney Abbe Lowell, offering "I think that they realize that we put ourselves in a position where we can win in court." Pergram also mentioned that "Comer says ground rules about [Hunter] hiding behind the Fifth Amendment are part of the negotiation."
"So no consideration by the Rules Committee means the House could stand down on its plan to hold Hunter Biden in contempt this week," Pergram also highlighted.
House Republicans are not the ones who are caving. Rather, that would be Hunter Biden.
"Following an exchange of letters between the parties on January 12 and January 14, staff for the committees and lawyers for Hunter Biden are working to schedule Hunter Biden’s appearance. Negotiations are ongoing this afternoon, and in conjunction with the disruption to member travel and cancelling votes, the House Rules Committee isn’t considering the contempt resolution today to give the attorneys additional time to reach an agreement," a House Oversight Committee spokesperson explained in a statement for Townhall.
Last Wednesday, the two committees held markups on holding Hunter in contempt for skipping out on his December 13 deposition. The first son even made a brief appearance at the House Oversight Committee hearing on January 10, though he left when it was Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's (R-GA), but not before being called out by Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC).
Per the spokesperson's statement, and as we've covered, Comer and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) have engaged in back-and-forth communications with Lowell over the legitimacy of the subpoenas issued to Hunter. Although the chairmen are willing to work to bring Hunter in, their January 14 letter nevertheless seeks to make clear that the subpoenas were valid and Lowell's claims that they were not are without merit.
As for what House Republicans ought to do from here, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on Monday's episode of "The Verdict" offered some advice on how to keep focused and not play into the Democrats' hands.
The senator pointed to how Lowell's letter from January 12 may have explained why Hunter did show up last Wednesday, with Lowell claiming that the first son actually did comply by offering to appear for public testimony and coming in last week as well as because the subpoenas were invalid since the House had yet to finalize the impeachment inquiry into the president. Comer and Jordan's January 14 letter dismisses such claims, though, pointing out how that's inconsistent with federal court opinions.
Cruz noted that the claims were "too clever by half, but that's their argument."
The senator also went on to urge House Republicans to reissue the subpoena, and to actually not hold Hunter in contempt, emphasizing Hunter "is not the target."
"Hold off a week. Issue the subpoenas right now and say you gotta wait to show up got a week to show up and delay the contempt vote by a week. If he shows up, don't hold him in contempt. Remember, and this is what I would urge," Cruz shared, speaking of how highly he still regards Republicans like Comer and Jordan. "Remember, remember, remember Hunter Biden is not the target," with co-host Ben Ferguson offering that would be the president.
"And why is that? Because the evidence is growing every day that the President of the United States is corrupt," Cruz added, continuing to urge House Republicans not to focus on the legitimacy of the subpoenas that had been issued.
Cruz warned that such a move would be "playing into the White House's hands" and is "what they want," explaining "they want a year of legal skirmishes over issues that don't matter. He says 'if you give me a subpoena, I will show up,'" as Cruz continued to stress that House Republicans should "issue it right now."
"Like we need to get the hearing moving fast. You do the deposition in a week, the hearing in three weeks. You got two weeks to study everything from the deposition. But let's be clear, it is January already. The White House's strategy is very simple: delay this past Election Day... run out the clock and so the House they’re great guys but they need to understand that that the Democrats are fighting this like street fighters, they need to be smart and savvy and move forward," Cruz continued as he further laid out advice. "I don't know if he'll show up or not. This may be a ruse. If you issue the subpoena on Tuesday, you give him one week and he doesn't show up in one week, vote on the contempt the next day, like you can speed this up. But if he's offering to surrender, give him a chance to do so."
As Cruz pointed out that Hunter has "made a series of life choices that were suboptimal," with many of them being "disastrously bad" for the president, he also stressed that that isn't the only narrative to go with, though.
"The reason this is a matter of public concern, and I want to keep underscoring it because it's easy to lose focus," Cruz reminded, is not because of the drug problems or own personal crimes, especially since "if his name was Hunter Smith, no one would care."
Rather, the reason Hunter Biden is still so important, Cruz offered, is "because the evidence, I think, is now overwhelming that he had a business for years, for decades of selling favors from daddy," which the senator called out as "official corruption," especially because Joe Biden served as the vice president and is now the president.
"And the evidence is growing, that it's not just Hunter profiting, it's the entire family. It is millions of dollars in his shell corporations, it is money laundering, that this is a family business," Cruz shared.
The senator even revealed that he used to not like to use the phrase "the Biden crime family," though the evidence has convinced him it's an appropriate descriptor, even using some choice language to drive home his point. "And I gotta admit, as the evidence has piled up, if it ain't that I don't know what it is, but if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, that's a duck damnit," Cruz candidly shared, before going on to repeat his advice to House Republicans once more.
"And so, what I would encourage House Republicans is remember the focus the reason this matters is official corruption by the President of the United States. Everything else--Hunter at the end of the day, as a witness, he is a co- conspirator, he is a criminal, but he is also a witness to the corruption by the office holder. And that's where the focus needs to stay," Cruz stressed.