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1 1 (December 22, 2023)

handle is hein.crs/govenuy0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional_______ ~ Research Service Committee Discretion in Obtaining Witness Testimony December 22, 2023 Early in December 2023, Hunter Biden, son of President Biden, refused to comply with a subpoena issued by the House Committees on Oversight and Accountability and the Judiciary (the Committees) seeking Mr. Biden's testimony in a deposition. Appearing at a press conference shortly before the subpoena deadline, Mr. Biden stated that he was willing to appear and testify in a public hearing but would not appear for a closed-door deposition out of concern that the Committees would selectively leak portions of his testimony. The Committees have rejected his offer for public testimony at this time and are now considering contempt of Congress proceedings. This Sidebar addresses congressional depositions generally and whether any existing legal constraints govern the Committees' decision to obtain witness testimony through a private deposition rather than a public hearing. Ultimately, neither the Constitution nor House or committee rules appear to constrain the Committees' significant discretion to choose among authorized mechanisms for obtaining testimony from a witness. It also does not appear that Mr. Biden's concern about the Committees' potential future use of his testimony would lead a court to invalidate the subpoena. As a result, while Mr. Biden may request that the committee hear his testimony in a public hearing rather than a deposition, it is unlikely that either that request, or its rejection by the Committees, will excuse him from his legal obligations. Committee Deposition Authority A deposition is a method of gathering sworn testimony through the direct questioning of a witness in a non-public setting. In the congressional context, the deposition has developed as a way for committees to obtain witness testimony in an efficient and confidential matter. This mechanism allows committees to avoid expending the substantial resources necessary to hold a formal hearing, though depositions are often used to prepare a committee for a formal public hearing held later in time. The routine use of depositions to collect information is a relatively new but significant tool in Congress's investigative tool box. Beginning in the latter part of the 20th century, the House periodically authorized committees to take depositions in impeachment investigations and other major oversight investigations, including, for example, Iran-Contra and, more recently, the Benghazi and January 6th investigations. It was not until 2007 that the House first provided the Oversight Committee standing deposition authority, and only in 2015 did the House begin to extend that authority to other committees as part of each year's Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov LSB11093 CRS Legal Sidebar Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress