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Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, says he is willing to appear before an open hearing of the House Oversight committee but did not appear at a scheduled closed-door session.

Jose Luis Magana/AP

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Jose Luis Magana/AP

Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, says he is willing to appear before an open hearing of the House Oversight committee but did not appear at a scheduled closed-door session.

Jose Luis Magana/AP

Hunter Biden told reporters on Capitol Hill Wednesday that he is willing to testify in a public hearing today, but would not commit to a closed-door deposition. Biden made an unexpected appearance at a press conference outside the Capitol at the same time as he was scheduled to appear in a closed-door deposition following a subpoena by House Republican House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer.

“I am here to testify at a public hearing today to answer any of the [Oversight] committee’s legitimate questions,” Bidens said. “Republicans do not want an open process where Americans can see their tactics exposed expose their baseless inquiry or hear what I have to say.”

Biden’s appearance comes as House Republicans are intensifying their focus on Biden and his father. The House is scheduled to vote later in the day on Wednesday to formalize an impeachment inquiry against President Biden over alleged influence peddling and financial misdeeds involving Hunter Biden’s foreign business.

So far, Repubicans have not presented any evidence of impeachable offenses by President Biden. Both Hunter Biden and the White House have vehemently deny the allegations.

“Let me state as clearly as I can,” Hunter Biden said at the Capitol. “My father was not financially involved in my business. Not as a practicing lawyer. Not as a board member of Burisma not my partnership with a Chinese private businessman. Not in my investments at home nor abroad, and certainly not as an artist.”

Last month, Oversight Committee Chairman Comer presented documents that allegedly suggested President Biden received payments from Hunter Biden’s law firm, which had received payments from Chinese companies and other foreign entities. Hunter Biden’s lawyers responded that the payments were from Hunter to his father, to repay him for financing a truck when he was unable to secure credit.

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

Hunter Biden accused House Republicans of “cherry picking lines from a bank statement, manipulating texts I sent editing the testimony of my friends and former business partners and misstating personal information that was stolen from me.”