An attorney for Kevin Morris, a lawyer for Hunter Biden who loaned him millions of dollars to pay his tax bills, is accusing Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., of mischaracterizing testimony Morris made in a closed-door committee hearing Thursday.
“Not two hours after we left Mr. Morris’ transcribed interview, you issued a press statement with cherry‐picked, out of context and totally misleading descriptions of what Mr. Morris said,” Morris’ attorney, Bryan Sullivan, wrote in a letter to Comer obtained by NBC News. “So much for the promise of your staff that Mr. Morris would be treated fairly.”
The letter demands that the entire transcript of Morris’ interview be released immediately. The interview lasted about five hours and was attended by staff and members of the House Oversight, Judiciary and Ways and Means Committees.
A spokesperson for the House Oversight Committee said the transcript will affirm Comer’s description of the interview. “The Committee intends to release the transcript soon but we do not have it from the court reporter at this time,” the spokesperson added.
A Hollywood-based attorney, Morris became friends with Hunter Biden in 2019. NBC News has previously reported that Morris began advising the younger Biden in 2020 and arranged to pay about $2 million in outstanding tax obligations to the IRS for him in 2020 and 2021.
After Morris’ deposition, Comer, who serves as chairman of the Oversight and Accountability Committee, released a statement that said Morris’ “massive financial support to Hunter Biden raises ethical and campaign finance concerns for President Joe Biden.”
“Shortly after meeting Hunter Biden at a Joe Biden campaign event in 2019, Kevin Morris began paying Hunter Biden’s tax liability to insulate then-presidential candidate Joe Biden from political liability,” the statement added. “Kevin Morris admitted he has ‘loaned’ the president’s son at least $5 million.”
In his letter to Comer, Sullivan said the loans were reviewed by lawyers to make sure they were proper and that he expects Hunter to pay them back. Sullivan also pushed back against Comer’s claim that Morris loaned Hunter money to shield his father from political liability.
“This misstates Mr. Morris’ testimony,” Sullivan wrote. “Rather, Mr. Morris was concerned only that people like you not drag him into things like former President Trump’s impeachment, began helping Mr. Hunter Biden for that reason, and Mr. Morris testified that he never thought about President Biden’s campaign, that he was only focused on helping his client Mr. Hunter Biden.”
“We do not have to have this dueling rendition of what Mr. Morris actually said. Just release the full transcript,” Sullivan added in his letter. “Why would you be reluctant or afraid to do that, other than it will disprove your spin? Let the public see the truth.”
In a statement to NBC News, Morris offered a harsh assessment of the Republicans seeking to impeach Joe Biden.
“They bring up something totally innocuous and legal, get nowhere with it, and they run to the cameras and make spooky noises,” he said. “What they do has an elementary school quality to it.”
On Thursday, Comer and Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, announced that Hunter Biden will appear for a closed-door deposition on Feb. 28 as part of their impeachment inquiry into his father.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
