Hunter Biden made a surprise appearance on Capitol Hill Wednesday, telling a throng of reporters outside the Senate office buildings that he will not comply with House Republicans’ subpoena demanding he submit to a closed-door deposition. Meanwhile, on the other side of Capitol Hill, GOP lawmakers and staff from the House Oversight Committee were waiting for the first son to appear as summoned.  

In his remarks to the press, Mr. Biden fils told reporters that Republicans are trying to take advantage of his painful history as an addict in order to damage President Biden, who was “never financially involved” in the family’s overseas business dealings.

“I’m here today to make sure that the House committees’ illegitimate investigations of my family do not proceed on distortions, manipulated evidence, and lies,” Mr. Biden told reporters, who was flanked by his lawyer, Abbe Lowell. 

Mr. Biden was subpoenaed by the chairman of the Oversight Committee, Congressman James Comer, in November for a private deposition that was due to be conducted today by committee staff attorneys. Yet Mr. Lowell has said his client would not participate in a “cloaked, one-sided process.”

The first son, who is an addict in recovery, told the assembled crowd of reporters that congressional Republicans are doing nothing more than taking advantage of his difficult history for their own political gain. “I’m here today to acknowledge that I have made mistakes in my life and wasted opportunities and privileges I have been afforded,” Mr. Biden said. “For that, I am responsible. For that, I am accountable. For that, I am making amends.”

“For six years, I have been the target of the unrelenting Trump attack machine, shouting: ‘Where’s Hunter?’” he added. “Here’s my answer: I am here.”

“Where’s Hunter” t-shirts were commonly worn by Trump supporters during the 2020 campaign.

House Republicans, who are expected to approve an impeachment inquiry authorization Wednesday afternoon in a vote of the full House, have for years focused on the younger Mr. Biden as a money-laundering front for members of the Biden family engaged in, as Mr. Comer puts it, “organized crime.”   

“My father was not financially involved in my business — not as a practicing lawyer, not as a board member of Burisma, not in my partnership with a private Chinese businessman, not with my investments at home or abroad, and certainly not as an artist,” the first son said Wednesday. 

His addiction is to blame for his personal tax evasion and search for money overseas, he said — crimes for which he is now being prosecuted. 

“In the depths of my addiction, I was extremely irresponsible with my finances,” he explained. “But to suggest that is grounds for an impeachment inquiry is beyond the absurd. It’s shameless. There’s no evidence to support the allegations that my father was financially involved in my business because it did not happen.”

In response to Mr. Biden’s defiant speech, Mr. Comer and his Oversight Committee colleagues announced that they will soon start the process of holding the first son in contempt of Congress — which could once again land him before a federal judge and potentially lead to jail time. 

“We issued a lawful subpoena to the president’s son,” Mr. Comer said Wednesday. “We have specific questions for the president’s son. He does not get to dictate the terms of this subpoena.”

In a statement, the Oversight Committee said it has already begun the process of holding Mr. Biden criminally liable for failing to appear as summoned. “Hunter Biden defied a lawful subpoena today, and we will now initiate contempt of Congress proceedings,” the committee said. “There will be no special treatment because his last name is Biden. Joe Biden and his family must be held accountable for their corruption.”

With the House due to recess Thursday until mid-January, it is likely that a contempt resolution will be one of the first things taken up by the Oversight Committee in the new year.