Hunter Biden’s closed-door deposition with GOP-led House committees: Live updates

Democrats leaving Hunter Biden’s deposition said the president’s son raised the “double standard” of Republicans investigating his business dealings but turning a blind eye to members of the Trump family like Jared Kushner, whose company received a $2 billion investment from Saudi Arabia after leaving the Trump White House.

“I think [Hunter Biden] may be a little bit frustrated by some of the double standards relating to Jared Kushner and money that has been just openly pocketed by Donald Trump in office and Jared Kushner, of course, brought back $2 billion from Saudi Arabia. And all of that has been part of the conversation and he was assertive about that,” said Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee.

Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman echoed, “I thought one of his most powerful lines is when he made it very clear that none of the business dealings that he ever had were with any government entity, and he pointed out, unlike Jared Kushner has received $2 billion from the Saudi Arabian government as soon as he left office when he was the point person on Middle East policy.”

Goldman said, “We all noticed, I think, that there were some Republicans nodding their head, when Hunter suggested that it would be worth investigating Jared Kushner and his $2 billion from Saudi Arabia.”

Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz said after the president’s son posed the question of why Republicans were not curious about Kushner’s business dealings with Saudi Arabia, “for the first time, some Republicans in the room said, ‘No, we have a problem with that.’” 

Raskin said he understood why the president’s son wanted to testify publicly, given how forthright he has been in his answers.

“I understand why Hunter Biden wanted to testify in public because I think he would answer all of the questions that the public has based on all of his propaganda to everybody’s satisfaction, and I understand why our Republican colleagues didn’t want him to testify in public,” he said.