White House visitor logs showed that an attorney for Hunter Biden met with one of First Lady Jill Biden’s top aides as well as President Joe Biden himself days before the president’s son defied a congressional subpoena, the New York Post (NYP) reported Saturday.
Hunter’s attorney Abbe Lowell had a meeting with Anthony Bernal, who has been an aide for Jill since 2008, in the East Wing of the White House on December 11, 2023, according to the NYP. Visitor logs also showed that Lowell met with Joe Biden, but the Post noted that meeting was most likely in the context of an official Hanukkah reception held the same day.
“We’ve called on the White House to provide information about whether President Biden sought to influence or obstruct our investigation by preventing, discouraging, or dissuading his son from complying with the subpoenas for a deposition as part of the House of Representatives’ impeachment inquiry, but the White House has refused to provide any information,” House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) told the Post.
“The White House must provide the public with information about the contents of this meeting in order to provide transparency to the American people,” he added.
Two days after Lowell visited the White House, Hunter skipped his scheduled deposition with congressional investigators regarding the corruption-focused impeachment inquiry into the president. The president’s brother, James Biden, as well as Hunter Biden’s art dealer and business associates, had also received congressional subpoenas.
Hunter did show up on Capitol Hill the day he was supposed to sit down for the deposition, but instead of meeting with investigators, he held an impromptu press conference, denying that his father was “financially involved” in his business affairs, including in dealings abroad with people from China and Ukraine, as well as his investments domestically and work as an artist.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre later remarked that Joe Biden was “familiar” with what Hunter planned to say at the press conference.
Under threat of being held in contempt of Congress by House Republicans, Hunter finally agreed to sit down for a deposition in late February. In the transcript for the deposition, Hunter confirmed that his father was, in fact, the “big guy” referenced in a message related to a proposed business deal with a Chinese company.
Hunter declined an invitation in March to testify in a public hearing before the Oversight Committee, with Lowell citing a scheduling conflict.
“We’ve proven the crimes. Now it’s time to hold people accountable for the crimes and Joe Biden needs to answer some questions in front of the Oversight Committee,” Comer told Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo during a Wednesday interview. “We’ve had three Biden associates that said [President Biden] was the closer of … selling the Biden brand.”
Comer and House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) subpoenaed Devon Archer, one of Hunter’s former business associates, on Thursday to hand over documents that had originally been requested in August 2023 related to Biden family business dealings.
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