The House Oversight Committee announced on Thursday that both whistleblowers who have accused the DOJ of corruptly protecting Hunter Biden will testify before Congress. According to the statement, the hearing will happen on July 19th at 1:00 PM Eastern time.
The assumption in light of the announcement is that the hearing will be public and televised, though that wasn’t directly confirmed in the statement. Both whistleblowers have already spoken to Congress in a private setting so there would be no reason to promote a time and location if it weren’t public. We’ll see how that plays out, though.
The news of the hearing comes on the heels of the DOJ criminally charging Gal Luft, a former Hunter Biden associate who was operating as a witness regarding the Bidens’ alleged foreign corruption. That move likely cuts off Luft from further cooperating with Congress to provide information against the Biden family. GOP House members would likely want to retake the initiative following the DOJ’s brush-back pitch, and getting Gary Shapley and the other unnamed whistleblower before cameras will certainly do that.
With one of the two whistleblowers currently still anonymous, it’ll be interesting to see if there are any surprises regarding their identity. It wouldn’t be possible to keep anonymity in a public hearing.
The other aspect of this is a possible impeachment inquiry of Merrick Garland. Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s first deadline has already come and gone, leaving Republicans restless as to what the next move is. Perhaps this hearing is the setup for showing that Garland lied and will be the first step toward a formal inquiry. Stay tuned.