F. Scott Fitzgerald as soon as stated that “the truest signal of intelligence is the power to entertain two contradictory concepts concurrently.” If that’s the case, Capitol Hill this week looks like a Mensa conference.
This week, Home Oversight Committee rating member Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., slammed the Oversight Committee Republicans for refusing a requirement from Hunter Biden that he be allowed to skip a closed-door deposition and solely testify in public. Raskin was appalled even if he and his Democratic colleagues insisted on the exact same apply after they managed the Home.
Raskin declared that the place of the GOP is an “epic humiliation” and the insistence on a deposition is “a frank confession that they’re merely not within the details and don’t have any confidence in their very own case or the power of their very own Members to pursue it.”
He added:
“Let me get this straight. After wailing and moaning for ten months about Hunter Biden and alluding to some huge unproven household conspiracy, after sending Hunter Biden a subpoena to seem and testify, Chairman Comer and the Oversight Republicans now reject his supply to seem earlier than the total Committee and the eyes of the world and to reply any questions that they pose?”
This is similar Rep. Raskin who sat on the Jan. sixth Committee, which held intensive close-door depositions with witnesses after which held tightly scripted public hearings the place witnesses appeared like props in a tv manufacturing.
That was the identical committee that rejected a proposal of a key witness, Stewart Rhodes, to testify in a public listening to. The Committee performed intensive closed-door periods with witnesses after which known as a number of to reply particular questions in hearings that had been produced with the assistance of a former community producer.
A congressional subpoena just isn’t like an invite to a debutante ball the place you possibly can select the time and circumstances of your grand entry. By the point a subpoena is issued, you’re largely previous the negotiation stage.
The usage of a close-door deposition serves some apparent functions. Because of years of delay, Hunter will now face an enormous quantity of proof collected by the committee from accounts, messages, and prior depositions of different witnesses. A few of this materials can elevate confidential materials that may not be topic to public disclosure.
There are additionally apparent tactical advantages from such depositions. They’ll lock in a witness on an account. Certainly, they’ll simply entice a witnesses who strays from a practiced narrative — conflicts that come on the danger of legal incrimination. Lastly, they permit the Committee to deal with the most efficient areas for the general public hearings — the very operate utilized by Raskin and his colleagues in prior hearings.
Hunter is wanting on the worst potential circumstances for sworn testimony. He’s showing close to the tip of the investigation after different testimony and proof have been reviewed and ready. Any false assertion can lead to a brand new legal cost. Whereas the Justice Division inexplicably allowed the statute of limitations to run on previous felonies, any false assertion would create a “new set of downs” for prosecutors in searching for legal expenses.
Whereas Hunter has insisted that he would solely testify at “the proper time” and solely in public, he has reached the purpose of diminishing choices and rising dangers. A refusal to seem may set off a contempt cost — a cost that Legal professional Normal Merrick Garland has aggressively used towards Trump associates.
In his letter, Hunter Biden’s counsel Abbe Lowell denounced the subpoena and famous that “Hunter is a non-public one that has by no means labored in any household enterprise nor ever served within the White Home or in any public workplace.” In fact, the investigation is exploring long-standing allegations that affect peddling was the Biden household enterprise.
Hunter has lengthy been capable of depend on an enabling and at instances fawning media to keep away from answering tough questions. That may now finish with this subpoena. As for the Democrats, they are going to be confronted with the exact same course of that they utilized in prior investigations. The alarm over the looks of Hunter beneath oath in a deposition is justified, however the objections should not.
