Democrats call Jim Jordan a hypocrite for move to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress

WASHINGTON, D. C. – A drive by Jim Jordan’s House Judiciary Committee to adopt a report chiding Hunter Biden for not honoring a subpoena in House Republicans’ impeachment inquiry devolved into a debate over the Ohio Republican’s refusal to honor a 2022 subpoena from the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol.

“It seems like you believe we all had our memories wiped 608 days ago when you failed to honor your own subpoena,” said California Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell, a member of the committee that sought Jordan’s testimony about about his activities surrounding the 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol, including his communications with ex-President Donald Trump. “How dumb do you think the American people are?”

As Jordan and other Republicans tried to adopt a report finding Hunter Biden in “contempt of Congress” for not testifying before House Committees when he was summoned last month, Democrats tried unsuccessfully to amend the report to find Jordan himself in contempt.

“I know the chairman wouldn’t want an ordinary citizen to be treated differently from a member of Congress,” said California Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, who introduced the motion and was also a member of the January 6th Committee.

The January 6th Committee voted in 2022 to refer Jordan and several of his GOP colleagues to the House Ethics Committee for failing to honor the subpoenas it sent them, in addition to referring former President Donald Trump to the Justice Department for potential criminal charges. The Ethics Committee did not take up its recommendation, as control of Congress shifted to Republicans at the beginning of 2023.

Jordan on Wednesday described the January 6th Committee as “completely partisan” and noted it didn’t move to hold him in contempt of Congress. Jordan said he responded to its subpoena with a lengthy response that questioned its validity and stated he had no “relevant information that would advance any legitimate legislative purpose.”

Jordan says Hunter Biden failed to comply with subpoenas issued by the Judiciary and the Oversight and Accountability committees for testimony related to their probe of Biden family’s business affairs. If they decide President Joe Biden abused his office, Republicans intend to pursue impeachment.

Instead of appearing in a closed session to answer questions from Jordan and other committee chairs when he was supposed to show up on Dec. 13, Hunter Biden held a press conference at the U.S. Capitol where he said he wants to testify in an open session so Republicans can’t misrepresent his remarks.

At the same time as Jordan held his hearing, Hunter Biden was in the audience of a separate House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing on holding him in contempt. Democrats at that hearing suggested that they hear from Hunter Biden then, but Republicans refused. Democrats on Jordan’s committee urged him to immediately invite Biden to testify in an open session, but Jordan did not do so.

“The hypocrisy here is beyond belief, except the Republicans have shown it repeatedly in this session,” said the committee’s top Democrat, New York’s Jerrold Nadler.

The report that Jordan drafted for his committee’s consideration says Biden’s failure to appear before the committees in December means he “violated federal law and must be held in contempt of Congress.”

“Mr. Biden’s flagrant defiance of the Committees’ deposition subpoenas—while choosing to appear nearby on the Capitol grounds to read a prepared statement on the same matters—is contemptuous, and he must be held accountable for his unlawful actions,” Jordan’s report says. “Accordingly, the Chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary recommends that Congress find Robert Hunter Biden in contempt for his failure to comply with the Committee subpoena issued to him.”

California Republican Rep. Darrell Issa said Hunter Biden repeatedly used his family name for wrongdoing, and that the committee wants to see whether Joe Biden took official actions as a result of money flowing to him or other family members. He said Hunter Biden’s actions towards the committee amounted to giving it “the middle finger.”

Issa said that “when somebody flips the bird” to the American people and Congress, that’s when there should be a contempt referral to federal courts.

According to the Congressional Research Service, a witness suffers no direct legal consequence from House or Senate approval of a contempt citation, though a variety of political consequences may flow from being held in contempt. The process of holding an individual in contempt generally includes a vote of the committee reporting the matter to the full House or Senate, followed by a vote of the full chamber to direct the certification of the matter to the U.S. Attorney.

A conviction for the offense is punishable by a fine of up to $100,000 and imprisonment “for not less than one month nor more than twelve months,” the research service says. It notes that Steve Bannon, a former advisor to ex-President Donald Trump, was convicted of criminal contempt of Congress in 2022 and sentenced to four months in jail and ordered to pay a fine of $6,500.

The research service report says that the House of Representatives has approved six criminal contempt of Congress citations since 2019. In four instances (involving Dan Scavino, Mark Meadows, William Barr, and Wilbur Ross) the Justice Department declined to present the citations to the grand jury, and the criminal matters ceased.

Hunter Biden, who is facing tax evasion charges for failing to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes between 2016 and 2019 and gun charges for lying about being an addict when purchasing a firearm, conceded that he was “extremely irresponsible with my finances” during a battle with addiction, but called it “beyond absurd” for Republicans to use that as grounds to attack his father. His back taxes have since been paid.

“It’s shameless,” Hunter Biden said of the GOP inquiry during the press conference. “There is no evidence to support the allegations that my father was financially involved in my business because it did not happen.”

Sabrina Eaton writes about the federal government and politics in Washington, D.C., for cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer.