Lawyer for Hunter Biden confidant accuses GOP of misrepresenting testimony

A lawyer for Kevin Morris is accusing House Republicans of misrepresenting the Hunter Biden confidant’s closed-door testimony this week.

Morris’ lawyer, in a letter to Oversight Chair James Comer, accused the Kentucky Republican of including “cherry‐picked, out of context and totally misleading descriptions” in his public readout of the private deposition.

“You did not treat Mr. Morris fairly and engaged in your standard practice of partially and inaccurately leaking a witness’s statements. … I demand you now release the entire transcript of Mr. Morris’ interview,” Bryan Sullivan, Morris’s attorney, wrote in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by POLITICO.

An Oversight Committee GOP spokesperson rebuffed Sullivan’s accusation, predicting that the “transcript will affirm Chairman Comer’s readout of the interview with Kevin Morris,” an attorney who has also advised Hunter Biden.

“The Committee intends to release the transcript soon but we do not have it from the court reporter at this time,” the spokesperson added.

Morris also personally took aim at what he called the GOP’s “elementary school quality” misuse of his testimony.

“My ‘access’ to the White House consisted of tour, attending a wedding, and the especially heinous crime of attending last year’s Fourth of July picnic with hundreds of other people,” he told POLITICO in a statement.

In a lengthy statement released Thursday after the deposition, Comer said Morris was “paying Hunter Biden’s tax liability to insulate then-presidential candidate Joe Biden from political liability.” He added that “since Kevin Morris has kept President Biden’s son financially afloat, he’s had access to the Biden White House and has spoken to President Biden.”

But Sullivan, in his letter, said Comer’s statement is “intentionally misleading” and gives “the impression that there is some sort of deeper relationship with President Biden.”

“Mr. Morris testified that he has only had cursory communications with President Biden at public events like Mr. Biden’s daughter’s wedding, and said basic courtesy things as ‘hello’ and ‘how are you’ and President Biden making comments about Mr. Morris’ unkempt hair style that lasted a few minutes,” Sullivan wrote, adding that Morris also “testified that he has only been to the White House a few times.”

Sullivan also accused Comer of misrepresenting political donations Morris made, details of loans Morris gave to Hunter Biden including using quote marks around the word loan in his public statement, and a previous email Morris had sent about the money

Morris’ is the latest closed-door interview conducted as part of Republicans’ sweeping impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, which has largely focused on the business deals of his family members. Lawmakers, and staff, from both parties took part in the interview, which is one of several scheduled as Republicans look to wrap up their probe in a matter of weeks.

Republicans voted last year to formalize the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, but still appear short of the votes to actually recommend booting him from office. Though they’ve found evidence of Hunter Biden using his last name to try to bolster his own influence, and poked holes in previous statements by Joe Biden and the White House, they’ve struggled to find direct evidence that actions taken by Joe Biden as president or vice president were meant to benefit his family’s business deals.

Betsy Woodruff Swan contributed.