House Republicans on Friday said they will begin the formal process of holding Hunter Biden in criminal contempt of  Congress on Wednesday of next week after he refused to give a closed-door deposition last month to the House Oversight Committee.  

In a statement, the committee chairman, James Comer, announced that the committee would hold a markup of a contempt resolution on Wednesday. 

“Hunter Biden’s willful refusal to comply with our subpoenas constitutes contempt of Congress and warrants referral to the appropriate United States Attorney’s Office for prosecution,” Mr. Comer said in his statement. “We will not provide him with special treatment because of his last name.”

Mr. Comer added that the committee had “planned to question Hunter Biden” concerning allegations made by Republicans that President Biden “knew of, participated in, and benefitted from his family cashing in on the Biden name.”

The committee’s ranking Democrat, Congressman  Jamie Raskin, said that Republicans refused to accept Mr. Biden’s offer to testify publicly and that Mr. Comer  “has now obstructed his own hapless investigation by denying Hunter Biden the opportunity to answer all the Committee’s questions in front of the American people and the world.”

“There is no precedent for the U.S. House of Representatives holding a private citizen in contempt of Congress who has offered to testify in public, under oath, and on a day of the Committee’s choosing,” Mr. Raskin said in a statement. “Chairman Comer repeatedly urged Hunter Biden to appear at a Committee hearing, and Hunter Biden agreed.”

The markup is currently scheduled on the eve of Mr. Biden’s scheduled arraignment at Los Angeles, where he is facing nine federal charges, including felonies, for evading taxes on money he earned from various foreign entities in Ukraine, Communist China, and other countries. 

He is also facing multiple felony charges in Delaware for failing to disclose his drug use while buying a gun in 2018. Mr. Biden continues to be under investigation by Special Counsel David Weiss, who may file additional charges, perhaps for alleged violations of the Foreign Agent Registration Act.

A committee source told NBC News the timing of the markup was coincidental.

The announcement from Mr. Comer comes as Republicans prepare to push forward with their impeachment inquiry into the president and interview people involved with Hunter Biden’s art career and a former business associate of the president’s brother, James Biden.