Hunter Biden agrees to testify in impeachment probe

President Joe Biden's son, Hunter, has agreed to testify directly to a Republican committee as part of an impeachment probe against his father.

The decision, announced by the House Oversight Committee on Thursday, comes after he refused for months to testify in any hearing not open to the public.

The standoff brought Mr Biden on the brink of being held in contempt of Congress.

The hearing will be held on 28 February, the committee said.

It is unclear where Mr Biden's testimony will take place, and whether it will be private or public. The BBC has contacted Mr Biden's legal team for clarification.

Republicans held off on the plan to hold Hunter Biden in contempt earlier this week amid the negotiations to testify, according to the Associated Press (AP) news agency.

"His deposition will come after several interviews with Biden family members and associates," Chairman James Comer and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan said in a joint statement.

"We look forward to Hunter Biden's testimony."

They noted that negotiations are ongoing with lawyers for the president's brother, James Biden, to arrange for his testimony.

AP News reported that Mr Biden's legal team had also confirmed the news.

A source close to Mr Biden told the Washington Post that his earlier refusal to appear for a deposition in private was because there "has always been a pattern by Republicans to cherry-pick closed-door sessions".

The president's son made a brief surprise appearance at one of the hearings last week, 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.

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".

Congressional Republicans leading the impeachment probe against President Joe Biden are investigating his son's business dealings to determine if Hunter Biden improperly benefited from his family name and "sold" access to his father.

In announcing the probe in September, then-Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said it came after committee investigators had unearthed a "culture of corruption" within the Biden family.

The White House has condemned the investigation as a "political stunt" designed to hurt the president's re-election bid.

The younger Biden was indicted last month on nine criminal counts, including for failing to pay his taxes on time from 2016 to 2019, filing false tax returns in 2018 and tax evasion.

If convicted on these charges, he could face up to 17 years in prison.

Mr Biden, 53, is also facing federal charges over felony gun offences, to which he has already pleaded not guilty.