U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman played an important role in last week’s deposition of Hunter Biden, interrogating the president’s son with a barrage of questions about the status of his crack cocaine and alcohol addictions while serving on the board of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma.
The deposition was conducted by the Oversight and House Judiciary committees of which Hageman is a member, two panels that have been leading the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. Republicans have alleged that Hunter Biden profited from his work on the board in return for his father’s support when he was vice president.
Hageman told Cowboy State Daily that Hunter Biden maintained throughout his testimony, which lasted more than six hours, that his father was never involved in his business dealings.
Also, an FBI informant was charged earlier this month with fabricating a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme involving President Biden, his son and Burisma.
The Deposition
Hageman said she found Hunter Biden’s deposition enlightening in that he was actively battling substance abuse addictions while actively serving Burisma, to the full knowledge of his fellow board members, all while his father was serving as vice president of the United States.
She and many other conservatives have accused Biden of being corrupted by foreign entities while vice president because his son and other members of his family received millions of dollars from these sources at the same time.
Hageman said the nation’s political leaders cannot be subject to different laws than everyday citizens, based on a two-tired system of justice. She also said politician families should not become enriched from their public roles.
“I believe that this is the most corrupt family ever in a position of power in this country’s history,” Hageman said. “We’re talking about a level of corruption that is so far beyond what we’ve seen with previous political leaders.”
When the FBI declined to prosecute some of these charges against Hunter Biden, Hageman said it resulted in an automatic gifting of millions of dollars to him.
Hageman believes the purpose of Hunter Biden serving on the Ukrainian board was to earn the implicit protection of the vice president of the United States.
“Who pays someone with these kinds of admitted raging addictions $1 million a year to be on a board in a country where you don’t even speak the language?” she questioned. “You don’t pay a crackhead $1 million a year to be on a board in a foreign country unless you’re getting something for it.”
When asked if he had ever had any interaction with his son’s partners at Burisma last week, President Joe Biden vehemently denied having any. Testimony from his son and photos have said otherwise, she said.
“I know that he’s suffering from dementia and that’s part of the issue, but I think part of the issue is that he (President Biden) is a liar,” Hageman said.
Back-And-Forth
Hageman said she started her deposition reassuring Biden that she wasn’t there to embarrass him or cause him heartache, but the conversation quickly escalated beyond these pleasantries.
First, she lasered in with Biden about exactly when his addiction to crack started.
Most of Hageman’s testimony centered on the timeline of Biden’s addiction in relation to his time serving on Burisma’s board. Biden said by the end of his time serving on the board in 2019, it had become fairly obvious to those around him that he was battling an addiction, and gone in and out of periods of addiction and sobriety during that time.
Biden said his co-workers at Burisma knew he had gone to more than a dozen rehabilitation centers for his addictions.
“And like people that are alcoholics or addicts, is that you can either make a go of hoping they get better or you can say we no longer want you to serve based on this,” Biden said.
Hageman asked Biden if he had a fiduciary responsibility to inform the company about his addiction. Biden returned the question to Hageman, asking her if every person in recovery or active addiction to alcohol should immediately resign from their jobs.
“He had a fiduciary obligation to inform them, everybody understands that,” Hageman said. “You can’t be a raging crack addict and expect to make $1 million a year on a board when you’re stoned out of your gourd.”
Hageman also quizzed Biden on when his addictions ended. Biden responded that addiction is not such a cut-and-dry thing.
“If you understood addiction, you don’t necessarily have dates,” Biden said. “The one date that you remember is this — you remember the day you quit, and you remember the date that you first started when you were 11 years old and you had your first drink.”
What Biden said recovering addicts like him don’t remember is the time in between their addictions when they were trying to get sober. Biden says he stopped using drugs and alcohol June 1, 2019.
Addiction An Excuse
Hageman also alluded to her belief that based on his addictions and personal behavior, she doesn’t find Hunter Biden a likely candidate to be offering guidance on oversight and accountability to a multimillion-dollar company on corporate governance.
Biden said during his deposition that he was extremely qualified for the role and more qualified than anyone deposing him that day. He explained that his role didn’t necessitate expertise on oil and gas in Ukraine, but rather knowledge of business ethics.
Hageman said he used his addiction as both an excuse and a justifier to answer specific questions about his dealings at Burisma, expressing a lack of memory for some events because he was high at the time, and also requesting more sympathy from the panel because of his addiction.
Biden also responded that addiction is difficult to define and that he fluctuated from periods of relatively high functionality to full-on debilitation.
“Sometimes it made me feel like I could do anything and sometimes it made me feel like I could do nothing,” he explained. “It’s the nature of drug addiction.”
When Hageman attempted to rephrase the question, she said Hunter Biden grew defensive again, accusing Hageman of being “hostile.”
Shortly after, Hageman referred to the people Biden worked with at Burisma as his “handlers.”
“Oh, you call them handlers? Do you have handlers?” Biden questioned Hageman.
“No, but I think you do,” Hageman responded.
Biden responded that this is a matter of Hageman’s opinion.
Demeanor
After this, a short back-and-forth ensued between Hageman and Biden’s attorney, who were interrupting each other in the deposition. Hageman said it was extremely obvious during Biden’s deposition that he had been well-trained by his attorney, Abbe Lowell, to present a positive appearance in the eye of the public and media.
“This was a made-for-primetime-TV-type of approach,” Hageman said.
Hageman said she wants Biden to testify in a public hearing so his attorney can’t interrupt and answer for him.
When Biden had to address his father’s involvement in his business dealings is when Hageman said he became nervous and “fidgety.”
“You can’t tell by his body language. That’s why having these things in person is so important,” she said.
What About Trump’s Cases?
Hageman believes that none of the 91 criminal charges filed against former President Donald Trump are legitimate and the justice system has been weaponized against him.
“We cannot have a justice system that treats Hunter Biden one way and Donald Trump Jr. a different way,” Hageman said. “We will not survive as a republic, it will tear this country apart.”
She believes that Trump’s compound in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, was raided when it was in August 2022 because the Justice Department knew confidential documents were about to be found in President Biden’s possession.
Drawing a comparison to a recent move made by the Colorado Supreme Court, Hageman believes a federal judge in New York is purposely working to keep Trump and his assets tied up through Election Day as a political move. She called the decisions made by this judge as “junior high level due process violations.”
“Anybody with a lick of sense knows that the judge skewed that case to do exactly what he’s done,” Hageman said.
She also brought up the election interference case Trump is engaged in in Georgia. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has become embroiled in controversy after it was revealed that she has engaged in a relationship with a staffer. This has caused accusations that Willis is using public resources to enrich themselves by extending out the lawsuit.
Hageman said Willis should be removed from the case as attorneys can’t serve as both a witness and an attorney in a lawsuit.
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
