Joe Biden said subpoena challengers should be indicted. Will their DOJ arrest Hunter?

• President Joe Biden said in October 2021 that defying a Jan. 6 House Select Committee subpoena should result in prosecution.
• Hunter Biden held a press conference on Capitol Hill on Wednesday instead of sitting down for his deposition before the House Oversight Committee.
• “Hunter Biden should be held to the same standard as other recent people who have bitten their noses at congressional subpoenas,” criminal defense attorney and legal analyst Philip Holloway told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Hunter Biden defied a congressional subpoena on Wednesday, an action his father has previously said should be prosecuted.

President Joe Biden said in October 2021 that people challenging the January 6 House Select Committee subpoenas should be processedand the Department of Justice accused Steve Bannon to do so in November 2021. Legal experts said the president's son could be, but for various reasons may not be, also prosecuted by the Justice Department of Biden for his choice to do a press conference on Capitol Hill instead of testifying before the House Oversight Committee.

Criminal defense attorney and legal analyst Philip Holloway told the Daily Caller News Foundation that the law “must be applied equally or it's meaningless.”

“Hunter Biden should be held to the same standard as other recent people who have bitten their noses at congressional subpoenas,” Holloway said. “In this case, however, Hunter went so far as to appear on the Capitol grounds and hold a press conference, thus figuratively giving the middle finger to the House of Representatives. It is imperative that he be cited for contempt and that be prosecuted by the United States attorney as was recently the case with Bannon.”

Holloway said that dodging a valid subpoena was “just stupid,” noting that Hunter could have “invoked the 5th Amendment” in his statement.

“I'm scratching my head wondering why Hunter's attorney, who was with him at the presser, would subject his client to additional criminal charges,” he said. “I would never advise someone to dodge a subpoena.”

George Washington University Law Professor Jonathan Turley made a similar point Thursday, writing that Republicans launching contempt proceedings in Congress could “force Attorney General Merrick Garland's hand” and call Hunter's refusal to look like an “unforced error.”

garland said in 2021 that Bannon's prosecution was seeking “equal justice under the law.”

“Since my first day in office, I have promised the employees of the Department of Justice that together we would show the American people by word and deed that the department adheres to the rule of law, follows the facts and the law and pursues equal justice under the law,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement at the time. “Today's charges reflect the department's strong commitment to those principles.”

'Unforced error': Jonathan Turley says Hunter Biden's refusal to testify could backfire massivelyhttps://t.co/XfSMnH40Jh

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) December 14, 2023

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan said in a statement On Wednesday they intend to start contempt proceedings in Congress.

Former federal prosecutor Andy McCarthy he wrote Wednesday that the young Biden knows that he will not be prosecuted by the Department of Justice.

“Similarly, Hunter Biden knows that while the House might hold him in contempt, Biden's Justice Department will not prosecute him for criminal contempt for [sic] three reasons,” he wrote. “(1) he's the president's son; (2) there's already tension with the White House because prosecutors botched the plea deal and have now indicted Hunter twice (putting the president in the politically committed position of having pardoned him at some point); and (3) the Department of Justice is part of an administration whose history is that impeachment inquiry is a politically il· legitimate forced by MAGA Republicans so they can orchestrate proceedings touted as 'impeachment of Biden' in parallel with the criminal proceedings Trump faces in court. , which the Democrats are promoting.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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