Hunter Biden Refuses to Testify Publicly, Calling G.O.P. Inquiry a ‘Circus’

Hunter Biden, the president’s son, on Wednesday rejected a request from House Republicans to testify next week at a public hearing in their impeachment inquiry into President Biden, blasting the G.O.P.’s plans as a “made-for-right-wing-media circus act.”

House Republicans had asked the younger Mr. Biden to appear at a hearing on March 20 alongside three of his former business partners. Two of them have been convicted in fraud cases, and the other is angry over being cut out of a deal.

But Abbe Lowell, Mr. Biden’s lawyer, cited a scheduling conflict while slamming the proceeding in a letter to Representative James R. Comer, Republican of Kentucky, the chairman of the Oversight Committee.

“Your blatant planned-for-media event is not a proper proceeding but an obvious attempt to throw a Hail Mary pass after the game has ended,” Mr. Lowell wrote, adding: “Mr. Biden declines your invitation to this carnival side show.”

House Republicans have been working for months to try to tie the foreign business deals of Hunter Biden, who is facing charges of tax crimes, to his father as part of their impeachment inquiry. But they have so far failed to produce evidence of wrongdoing by the president — much less high crimes and misdemeanors, the constitutional standard for impeachment.

Hunter Biden sat for a closed-door, six-hour interview with House investigators last month, frequently sparring with Republicans and criticizing their questions while offering explanations — often ones that were exceedingly unflattering to himself — for his actions. Despite pending criminal charges against him, Mr. Biden, 54, never invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.