After Asking ‘Where’s Hunter?’ for Years, Republicans Will Question Biden’s Son

Hunter Biden is scheduled to be deposed behind closed doors on Capitol Hill in the Republican impeachment inquiry into President Biden.

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Republicans’ deposition of Hunter Biden comes at a make-or-break moment in their impeachment investigation of his father.

Hunter Biden, the president’s son, is scheduled to appear on Capitol Hill on Wednesday for a deposition conducted by House Republicans who are hunting for evidence to try to impeach his father.

The interview of Hunter Biden, 54, which is expected to be lengthy, comes at a make-or-break moment for the inquiry. Republicans have sought for months to tie President Biden to the alleged misdeeds of his second-born son, but they have struggled with a series of setbacks, including the indictment of an F.B.I. informant accused of making up a story that the elder Mr. Biden took a $5 million bribe.

The deposition is the culmination of a multiyear Republican pursuit of Hunter Biden, whose business dealings and descent into debauchery have long made him a punching bag for the G.O.P. After years of asking “Where’s Hunter?” and spreading the lurid contents of a laptop that contained graphic material of his exploits while he struggled with drug addiction, Republicans will finally have their chance to question him.

The deposition is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. in a House office building near the Capitol.

It will be a major moment in the drawn-out feud between Republicans and Mr. Biden about whether he would cooperate in the impeachment inquiry. He had refused repeatedly to sit for a private deposition, and Republicans threatened to hold him in contempt of Congress for defying an earlier subpoena to do so.

Mr. Biden had maintained that he was worried that House Republicans would selectively leak portions of his testimony to misrepresent his account and try to harm his father. He made two surprise appearances on Capitol Hill in which he challenged Republicans to question him at a public hearing. But after the contempt threat, Mr. Biden relented.

Hunter Biden is already under federal indictment over accusations of tax crimes related to his overseas business interests, including with companies and partners in Ukraine and China. Testifying is a risk for him, because anything he says could be used against him in the criminal case.

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