I’ve categorized this post as political humor because the transcript of Hunter Biden’s deposition before the House Oversight Committee is absurd. Reading the account of Hunter Biden and his attorney shutting down every attempt to change the narrative, to slip in a word that would alter the entire meaning of a statement, is funny. The GOP got nothing.
The chairperson, Representative Comer, would not drop the case to impeach President Biden, even after the key witness, Alexander Smirnov, was arrested for lying to the FBI on behalf of Russian intelligence. Smirnov was held without bail because the FBI was tipped off that his attorneys were trying to help him leave the country. Republicans’ use of Russian agents to attempt to takedown President Biden shocks no one. They are doing Trump’s bidding.
The transcript makes clear why Representative James Comer refused Hunter Biden’s request for a public hearing. The deposition took seven hours. The manuscript is 229 pages. By page 12, it is confirmed; the republicans are fools. They are questioning a man whose intellect far exceeds their own. The instigator, James Comer, left early, not to return. I’m sharing the sections I enjoyed most, but if you have the time and interest, I suggest reading it in its entirety. I’ve attached the link to the end of this post. Hunter and his legal counsel, Abbe Lowell, controlled the proceedings, and it is fun to read.
Page 12, Hilarity Ensues:
Mr. Swalwell: “Hey, Chairman, about that, parliamentary inquiry, when are you going to release this transcript?”
[redacted] “I’m going to get to that in one moment, sir.”
Mr. Swalwell: “I’m asking the chairman, not you. Chairman Comer, when are you going to release the transcript on this?”
Chairman James Comer: “We’re conducting the deposition.”
Mr. Swalwell: “Yeah, but you’ve got 91 of them buried and —“
Chairman Comer: “I don’t care what your question is.”
Mr. Nadler: “Well, I care what his question is. When are you going to release the transcript? There are 91 transcripts that haven’t been released yet.”
Chairman Comer: “We will release the deposition — the transcripts like we always do when we agree to release the deposition, the transcripts.”
Mr. Swalwell “Shouldn’t the witness know?”
[redacted] “Yeah, we want to put the transcript out within a day.”
Mr. Nadler: “Within a day? Very good. Thank you.”
[redacted] “We’ll do our best, yeah.”
Mr. Swalwell: “In English or Russian?”
[redacted] “Excuse me? What’d you say?”
[redacted] Blah blah blah
Page 16-17:
[redacted] “Thank you, again, Mr. Biden, for being here this morning. I’d like to begin with discussing your professional and educational background. Could you just give us a brief overview of your background?”
Hunter Biden: “Sure. I wrote it down because it’s long. I’m a graduate of Georgetown University, a former member of the Jesuit Volunteer Corps Northwest. I graduated from Yale Law School, where I was an editor of the Yale Law and Policy Review and the Yale Law and Humanities Journal and received honors for my thesis work on law and policy. I was a vice president at a major national bank, where I worked in the General Counsel’s Office and then as manager of a unit within the Fraud Department. I was executive director of e-commerce policy coordination with the Department of Commerce during the Clinton administration. I founded and built a successful law firm, Oldaker, Biden & Belair, and represented not-for-profit institutions, including close to a dozen primarily Jesuit universities all over the country from Philadelphia to Los Angeles, from Detroit to Denver, and everywhere in between. I then founded and built the successful small business in advising global infrastructure and alternative investment clients. I have served on the following boards: I was appointed by President Bush to the National Passenger Rail Corporation Board, Amtrak, and rose to the level of vice chairman and head of the Corporate Governance Committee. I served on the board of the Center for National Policy as chairman. I served on the board of the Jesuit Volunteer Corps Northwest. I served on the board of the Truman National Security Project as chairman. I served on the chairman’s advisory board of the National Democratic Institute. I served on the board for Catholic Charities in Washington, D.C. I served on the board of the U.S./U.N. World Food Program, which supports the largest humanitarian organization in the world and is the past winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, an organization that feeds over 70 million people each day. And I was chairman of that board. I was also an adjunct professor for 4 years at Georgetown University’s School for Foreign Service in its master’s program. And, finally, I served as of counsel – excuse me, of counsel at a major international law firm of Boies, Schiller & Flexner. And I have been member of the bars of the States of Connecticut, the District of Columbia, the Federal Court of Claims, and the bar of the U.S. Supreme Court. I have recently written a memoir, “Beautiful Things,” and today I’m an artist. And that’s my background.”
From the experience and education listed, it is safe to say that Hunter Biden is smarter than the republicans on the panel. This is not a case of a nepotism-baby collecting a paycheck in exchange for attaching his name to a project. Hunter Biden is a lawyer and a businessman independent of his father.
Pages 149-152:
Matt Gaetz, who is currently under ongoing investigation for sex trafficking and providing drugs to minors, tries to spar with Hunter Biden, and fails.
Gaetz: “Were you on drugs when you were serving as the Burisma board member?”
Hunter Biden: “Mr. Gaetz, look me in the eye. You really think that’s appropriate to ask me?”
Gaetz: “Absolutely,”
Hunter: “Of all the people sitting around this table, do you think that’s appropriate to ask me?”
[Implied- Matty, you look high right now.]
Gaetz: “Absolutely.”
Hunter Biden: “I will answer it this way; I have been absolutely transparent about my drug use. Was I an addict? Yes, I was an addict. What does that have to do with whether or not you’re going to go forward with an impeachment of my father other than to simply try to embarrass me?”
Representative James Comer, the guy who insisted on this hearing and who has repeatedly lied to the press about witnesses and proof did not have a word for Mr. Biden.
Later——-
Swalwell: “Any time your father was in government, prior to the Presidency or before, did he ever operate a hotel?”
Hunter Biden: “No, he has never operated a hotel.”
Swalwell: “So he’s never operated a hotel where foreign nationals spent millions at that hotel while he was in office?”
Biden: “No, he has not.”
Swalwell: “Did your father ever employ in the Oval Office any direct family member to also work in the Oval Office?”
Biden: “My father has never employed any direct family members, to my knowledge.”
Swalwell: “While your father was President, did anyone in the family receive 41 trademarks from China?”
Biden: “No.”
Swalwell: “As President and the leader of the party, has your father ever tried to install as the chairperson of the party a daughter-in-law or anyone else in the family?”
Biden: “No. And I don’t think that anyone in my family would be crazy enough to want to be the chairperson of the DNC.”
Swalwell: “Has your father ever in his time as an adult been fined $355 million by any State that he worked in?”
Biden: “No, he has not, thank God.”
Swalwell: “Anyone in your family ever strike a multibillion dollar deal with the Saudi Government while your father was in office?”
Biden: “No.”
Swalwell: “That’s all l’ve got.”
~~~
The questioning by republicans followed a pattern of off the cuff recounts of meetings or payments or intent, always interrupted by Hunter Biden or his attorney.
For example— Biden: “What did you just say?” Ms.Hageman: “Never mind.” Biden: “No, you just said I worked for Romania, I am not Jared Kushner. I have never worked for another country.” “Show me proof of what you just said.” Ms.Hageman: “Moving on…”
Every time a committee member tried to shame Mr Biden for his struggles with addiction he reminded them that he has been completely transparent about his struggles with addiction. Responding to Representative Hageman who kept picking at the scab and how it affected his work life.
Hunter Biden: “I think there are a lot of people in this room that suffer with alcoholism and they are still here still functioning.“
“Do you think that every colleague of yours or anyone that works for you that’s an alcoholic — which I can guarantee you, at least 30 percent of the people that you serve with suffer from alcoholism; they’re either in recovery or active addiction.”
None of the questions had anything to do with President Biden. No one denied the purpose of the hearing was to embarrass and humiliate Hunter Biden.
We’re still waiting for Jim Jordan to honor his subpoena, issued December 2021.
‘Dereliction of duty’: Comer, Jordan and entire GOP under fire for ignoring warnings about Biden FBI informant. Comer who Smirnov was, but proceeded to use his testimony as evidence.
‘Dereliction of duty’: GOP under fire for ignoring warnings about Biden FBI informant
A lot from Lydia 