Hunter Biden: House Republicans back contempt of Congress charges

Two Republican-led panels in the House of Representatives have recommended holding President Joe Biden's son, Hunter, in contempt of the US Congress.

The committees both voted to send a contempt resolution for a House vote.

Hunter Biden has refused an order to testify in private about his business dealings as part of an impeachment inquiry into his father.

Mr Biden has said he would testify to the oversight committee, but only if it was a public hearing.

Republicans, however, said it was not for a private citizen to dictate the terms of a congressional subpoena.

• Hunter Biden defies Republican subpoena to testify

• What we know about the Biden impeachment inquiry

The president's son made a brief surprise appearance at one of the hearings earlier on Wednesday, throwing the session into chaos and angering Republicans.

He walked into the oversight committee's hearing shortly after it began with his lawyer, Abbe Lowell, and sat silently with crossed arms as a series of lawmakers railed against him.

"You are the epitome of white privilege, coming into the oversight committee, spitting in our face, ignoring a congressional subpoena to be deposed," said Nancy Mace, a South Carolina Republican.

"What are you afraid of? You have no balls," she added. "I think that Hunter Biden should be arrested right here, right now, and go straight to jail."

Democrats on the panel argued that Republicans, including sitting members of the House, had routinely ignored congressional subpoenas during the Trump presidency.

They also urged their counterparts to allow Mr Biden to be allowed to speak.

But oversight chairman James Comer, who struggled to keep the hearing from going off the rails, declined.

"Mr Biden doesn't make the rules," he said, "we make the rules."

Less than half an hour later, Mr Biden and his entourage left the hearing room, just as right-wing Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene began to speak.

Ms Greene, who has previously displayed nude photos of Mr Biden in the House, was left fuming: "What a coward."

As a throng of reporters trailed him, Mr Biden remained silent except to answer a question about why he had allegedly put his father on speakerphone in business meetings during Joe Biden's vice-presidency.

"If he called you, would you answer the phone?" he replied.

In a prepared statement, Mr Lowell reiterated that his client declined to testify behind closed doors so that Republicans "could not distort, manipulate, and misuse his testimony".

Mr Lowell also criticised the Republican party for using Mr Biden "as a surrogate to attack his father".

The passage of dual contempt resolutions on Wednesday advances the measure for consideration before the full House.

Republicans currently hold a two-seat margin in the chamber and it is unclear if they have the votes yet to approve the contempt measure in the full chamber.

If the House does find Mr Biden in contempt, it can then refer the matter for potential criminal prosecution by the justice department.

The impeachment inquiry into President Biden centres on Republican allegations that Mr Biden and his relatives unfairly profited during his father's vice-presidency.

The White House and Mr Biden have denied the allegations.

Mr Biden, 53, is already facing federal criminal charges for tax evasion and gun-related offences.

He is due to plead not guilty on the tax charges in a Los Angeles court on Thursday.