George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley said Hunter Biden’s testimony on Capitol Hill will “probably” have to “contradict his father.”
The president’s son is testifying before the House Oversight and Judiciary committees Wednesday for a closed-door deposition as part of congressional Republicans’ impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.
“This is the moment of truth that a lot of people have been waiting for. This is not a place where you can easily spin, if you are inaccurate, if you are untruthful, you can end up with federal charges and a brand new statute of limitations running,” Turley said. “And he has a really precarious road ahead. I don’t know what some of his answers will be, we expect that he’s gonna fall back on the fact that he was an addict, that his memory is not great. But the House committee has money transfers and emails that clearly show influence peddling going on and he’s gonna have to answer some of those questions.”
“I think at the outset, they’re likely to drill down what we all pretty much know. That President Biden lied when he said that he did not know anything about his son’s business dealings. Hunter Biden himself contradicted that earlier, and while he might try to spin it a bit, I think he’s probably gonna have to contradict his father,” he continued.
Then-presidential candidate Biden said he never discussed business with his son or had any knowledge of his business dealings during the 2020 presidential election. Testimonies and financial records have indicated otherwise, raising the question of whether Biden participated in an influence-peddling scheme regarding his son’s business dealings in Ukraine, China, Russia, Romania and Kazakhstan.
Hunter’s former business associate Devon Archer testified in late July that Biden dined with his son and a Russian oligarch at Cafe Milano in Washington D.C. in the spring of 2014. The oligarch who attended the dinner, Elena Baturina, was married to the former mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov. (RELATED: Reporter Asks James Biden If Hunter Smoked Crack In The White House)
Biden attended another dinner with Ukrainian energy executive Vadim Pozharskyi in the spring of 2015, according to Archer’s testimony. The then-vice president also reportedly attended a meeting with a Chinese business associate whose daughter later received a college recommendation from Biden.
He further testified that the Biden family “brand” protected Ukrainian energy company Burisma from legal scrutiny and that Hunter spoke to his father on speaker phone over 20 times while his business associates were present.
Archer told Daily Caller co-founder Tucker Carlson it is “categorically false” to claim Joe Biden did not know about his son’s business dealings.
Around that same time, Biden used the pseudonym “Robin Ware” to exchange 54 private emails with his son’s business associate and accountant, Eric Schwerin, according to records released by the House Ways and Means Committee.
The House Oversight Committee released records of a $200,000 check wired to Joe Biden by his brother, James, on March 1, 2018, that had been classified as a “loan repayment.” His brother wired the check to Biden from his wife, Sara’s, account after having received it from a distressed rural hospital operator.
IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley testified in May that the president’s son sent a threatening WhatsApp message to a CEFC official where he said his father was sitting next to him. His father apparently attended a meeting with CEFC China Energy officials in May 2017.
Turley said Monday that Hunter Biden “blew away” his potential legal defense by talking to Axios: