The chairmen of the House Oversight and House Judiciary Committee, Congressman James Comer and Congressman Jim Jordan, are threatening to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress if he fails to appear for a closed-door deposition next Wednesday. If Mr. Biden is held in contempt, he could be prosecuted by the Department of Justice like some of those who have declined to testify before the Select January 6 Committee. 

In a new letter sent to Mr. Biden’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, Messrs. Comer and Jordan again rejected the first son’s insistence that he will only testify before a public committee hearing. 

“On November 8, 2023, we issued subpoenas to your client, Robert Hunter Biden, for a deposition on December 13, 2023,” the chairmen wrote. “We received your letters dated November 8, 2023, and December 6, 2023, concerning the deposition subpoenas. Contrary to the assertions in your letter, there is no ‘choice’ for Mr. Biden to make: the subpoenas compel him to appear for a deposition on December 13. If Mr. Biden does not appear for his deposition on December 13, the Committees will initiate contempt of Congress proceedings.”

After his client was subpoenaed in November, Mr. Lowell responded to Mr. Comer to say he would not comply with the demand that he appear for a private, sworn deposition. “Our client will get right to it by agreeing to answer any pertinent and relevant question you or your colleagues might have, but rather than subscribing to your cloaked, one-sided process he will appear at a public Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing,” he wrote. 

The subpoena sent to Mr. Biden explicitly states that he must “appear for a deposition” on the morning of December 13. Should he fail to do so, he is at risk of being prosecuted by the Department of Justice should the House adopt a contempt resolution. 

Similar proceedings have taken place against members of President Trump’s inner circle after they failed to comply with subpoenas from the January 6 Committee in 2021. The former president’s chief White House political strategist, Steve Bannon, was indicted for not complying with the committee subpoenas in November 2021. When he attempted to walk those actions back by offering to appear before the committee just days before his criminal trial was set to begin, a Trump-appointed federal judge rejected his request, calling it a “last-ditch attempt to avoid accountability.”

Mr. Bannon was convicted in 2022 and sentenced to serve four months in federal prison and pay a $6,500 fine. He is currently appealing the conviction.

Mr. Trump’s chief trade advisor, Peter Navarro, has also been convicted of two counts of contempt of Congress after not complying with the January 6 Committee’s subpoenas. He will  be sentenced in early 2024 and faces up to two years in prison.  

Speaker Johnson has said that the House will soon take a floor vote on whether or not to authorize a formal impeachment inquiry, which would afford congressional Republicans even stronger legal arguments when it comes to the courts, that the investigation is legitimate should the first son continue to fight their subpoenas. Messrs. Comer and Jordan would need the cooperation of both the Justice Department and the courts if their contempt resolution of Mr. Biden fils is to have teeth,

“The House has no choice … [but] to formally adopt an impeachment inquiry on the floor so that when the subpoenas are challenged in court, we will be at the apex of our legal authority,” the speaker said at a Tuesday press conference. 

“This vote is not a vote to impeach President Biden, this is a vote to continue the inquiry of impeachment and that’s a necessary constitutional step,” he continued. “We have to continue our legal responsibility.”

The chairman of the House Rules Committee, Congressman Tom Cole, told reporters on Friday that he would soon draft the inquiry authorization bill and bring it to the floor before the end of the year. 

The threat of a contempt resolution puts Mr. Biden at increasing risk of seeing the inside of a prison cell. He is already facing three felony charges at Delaware for lying about his drug use to purchase a handgun in 2018.