This Week's Impeachment Inquiry Hearing Is Already Kind Of A Mess

WASHINGTON The top two witnesses Republicans wanted to call for Wednesdays impeachment inquiry hearing wont be there after all, and a third will have to testify from federal prison.

Democrats , meanwhile, announced Tuesday they had invited Lev Parnas, a Ukrainian American with extensive knowledge of Republican efforts to dig up fake dirt on Joe Biden , to be their expert witness. 

In short: The hearing is already a bit of a mess.

The impeachment inquiry itself, of course, has also been a bit of a mess, as Republicans have struggled to substantiate corruption allegations against the president. 

Republicans had hoped the presidents son, Hunter Biden, would testify this week alongside former business associates Devon Archer, Tony Bobulinski and Jason Galanis, all of whom have previously spoken to lawmakers in formal interviews behind closed doors. (Galanis was interviewed at a federal facility in Alabama where hes serving 14 years for fraud.) 

Despite his previous willingness to testify in public, the presidents son refused a request earlier this month from House Oversight Committee chair James Comer (R-Ky.) to participate in a public hearing. Comer has nonetheless said he still expects the younger Biden to show up on Wednesday. 

In a Monday letter obtained by HuffPost, Archers attorney complained that nobody had contacted him about the hearing until late Friday afternoon, saying a previous request had apparently gone to the wrong lawyer. He said there wasnt enough time to prepare Archers written testimony.

It is not remotely reasonable to ask an important witness in what is sure to be a closely-watched public hearing that the Committee has provocatively entitled Influence Peddling: Examining Joe Bidens Abuse of Public Office to prepare witness testimony in one business day, and to prepare to give public testimony in less than three business days particularly when he is traveling, the lawyer said. 

Archer may have been Republicans best witness so far. He worked with Hunter Biden for years and helped the Ukrainian gas company Burisma recruit him to its board in 2014. Republicans have claimed Hunter Bidens ties to Burisma prompted Joe Biden, when he was vice president in 2015, to make Ukraine fire a prosecutor looking into the company  an allegation State Department officials have repeatedly debunked and that the Treasury Department has essentially labeled as Russian propaganda . 

Archer told lawmakers during his interview last summer that he recalled Burisma officials asking Hunter Biden to call D.C. for help with unspecified government pressures in December 2015. Republicans have tried to make the phone call which Archer said he didnt actually witness into evidence that Hunter Biden asked his dad get the Ukrainian prosecutor fired . In his own deposition last month, Hunter Biden said no such phone call happened. 

Parnas first offered to testify in a letter to Comer last year, describing his efforts in 2018 and 2019 to help Donald Trumps then-attorney, Rudy Giuliani, find incriminating material about the Bidens in Ukraine. 

Throughout all these months of work, the extensive campaigns and networking done by Trump allies and Giuliani associates, including the enormously thorough interviews and assignments that I undertook, there has never been any evidence that Hunter or Joe Biden committed any crimes related to Ukrainian politics, Parnas wrote. Never, during any of my communications with Ukrainian officials or connections to Burisma, did any of them confirm or provide concrete facts linking the Bidens to illegal activities.

Bobulinski, one of the other witnesses expected to testify on Wednesday, first spoke out against the Bidens during a 2020 press conference arranged by Donald Trumps campaign. 

In his private interview with lawmakers in February, Bobulinski claimed Joe Biden was part of his sons business schemes and that he personally met with Joe Biden in Los Angeles in May of 2017 multiple times to discuss the broad contours of our business dealings. At the time, Bobulisnki was part of a group with Hunter Biden working on an ill-fated investment deal with a Chinese company.

However, the actual conversations Bobulinski describes with Joe Biden are mostly social. After Hunter Biden introduced them in a hotel bar, Bobulinski told Joe Biden about his familys military service, and Biden talked about some of the things they had dealt with as a family, their appreciation for the military and stuff like that. 

Hunter Biden and his uncle James didnt say much during the meeting, Bobulinski said, according to the transcript of his interview . And then we ... called it a night.

The next day, after Joe Biden made a speech at a conference in the hotel, Bobulinski said he met Biden backstage and walked with him to his car. 

In the walk out to the car, you know, he thanked me, Bobulinski said. And I just remember a comment of, Hey, you know, look out for my brother and son and, you know, thank you for what youre doing kind of thing.

In his jailhouse interview, Galanis who was indicted alongside Archer over a scheme to rip off a native tribe recalled a similar interaction with Joe Biden when Hunter Biden briefly put his father on speakerphone. (Hunter Biden said he recalled meeting Galanis once for 30 minutes and didnt work with him.)

The Vice President said, Hello, and some pleasantries, Hope you had safe travels, and seemed like he wanted to bring the call to an end by saying, Okay, you be good to my boy, Galanis said, according to the transcript .