Speaking to House lawmakers on Wednesday, Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, said that his father was "never" involved in his business dealings, according to a transcript of his prepared opening statement obtained by Spectrum News.

Kentucky Rep. James Comer, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee and one of the leaders of the impeachment inquiry, said Wednesday afternoon that the "next phase" of the inquiry will be a public hearing with Hunter Biden.

The closed-door deposition comes at critical moment for Republicans as their impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden and his family's business affairs teeters on the brink of collapse.

Comer praised Wednesday's hearing as "a great deposition for us," saying it "cleared up several bits of our evidence" while claiming there were "some contradictory statements that I think need further review," without going into detail.

"This impeachment inquiry will now go to the next phase which will be a public hearing," Comer said, adding that it's "something that I know Mr. Biden and his attorney both demanded."

"We will have a public hearing next," he continued, adding that he believes it "hopefully will clear up some discrepancies" between previous statements made and what Hunter Biden said Wednesday.

"All in all, I am very optimistic, very excited about this deposition," he concluded before adding that he hopes to release the transcript of the interview in the coming days. He did not answer questions from reporters about the nature of the contradictory statements.

Republicans described Hunter Biden's testimony earlier Wednesday as "defiant and dishonest," while Democrats called the hearing "a tremendous waste of our legislative time."

"I am here today to provide the Committees with the one uncontestable fact that should end the false premise of this inquiry: I did not involve my father in my business," the younger Biden's opening statement reads. "Not while I was a practicing lawyer, not in my investments or transactions domestic or international, not as a board member, and not as an artist. Never."

"You read this fact in the many letters that have been sent to you over the last year as part of your so-called impeachment investigation," Hunter Biden continued. "You heard this fact when I said it weeks ago, standing outside of this building. You heard this fact from a parade of other witnesses – former colleagues and business partners of mine, including my uncle – who have testified before you in similar proceedings. And now, today, you hear this fact directly from me."

Hunter Biden went on to say that his testimony "should put an end to this baseless and destructive political charade," accusing House Republicans of wasting "valuable time and resources attacking me and my family for your own political gain" when they could be "fixing the real problems in this country that desperately need your attention."

"For more than a year, your Committees have hunted me in your partisan political pursuit of my dad," Hunter Biden said, per his prepared testimony. "You have trafficked in innuendo, distortion, and sensationalism -- all the while ignoring the clear and convincing evidence staring you in the face. You do not have evidence to support the baseless and MAGA-motivated conspiracies about my father because there isn’t any."

During a break in the hearing, Democrats on the panel weren't shy about their thoughts on the status of their Republican colleagues' investigation.

"What we saw, I think, was a rather embarrassing spectacle where the Republicans continued to belabor completely trivial points," Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the Oversight panel said, later adding: "I believe, based on this first hour, that this whole thing really has been a tremendous waste of our legislative time and the people’s resources."

"They've got nothing," said California Rep. Eric Swalwell. "That's what we just witnessed for the last hour. One of their witnesses has been indicted for working with Russian intelligence, another witnesses has been indicted for working with Chinese intelligence, another witness is serving a 14-year felony sentence. 

"This is fourth and 20 on their own 10 and they don't have Patrick Mahomes," Swalwell added, making a reference to football. "You're going to see the greatest sack ever when you get the transcript from this."

New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez described the hearing as a "deep-sea fishing expedition."

"The Republican case has completely fallen apart over the last several weeks weeks after it's been exposed that ... one of their most key pieces of information was based on a source that was in communication with Russian intelligence, they are now trying to scramble to find anything to substantiate their fairy tale," she continued. "But I think more disturbingly what we are seeing is just a complete and inappropriate expedition into the president's son ... for matters and subjects that are completely unrelated to an impeachment investigation, and I think it is extremely disturbing to see the lack of professionalism, the lack of grounding and the abuse of public resources and abuse of public power in order to pursue something that truly whose point at this juncture is just very unclear."

Republicans, however, contended that Hunter Biden was "defiant and dishonest" in his testimony.

"Hunter Biden is being defiant and also dishonest," South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace, a staunch supporter of former President Donald Trump, told reporters. "And his testimony, some of it, is in direct conflict with other witnesses."

"The transcripts will be out, I won't go into detail, you'll be able to see it for yourself, but it's no surprise, it's no shock that he is being that way," Mace said, adding that Hunter Biden said "multiple times" that he did not recall in response to their questions.

Mace said that Hunter Biden did not invoke the Fifth Amendment, which protects individuals from making statements that could incriminate them, but reiterated her earlier point that his testimony contradicted that of other witnesses, though she would not say which ones. 

Hunter Biden arrived at the Capitol earlier Wednesday morning, entering the building without saying a word to reporters.

The deposition will mark a decisive point for the 14-month Republican investigation into the Biden family, which has centered on Hunter Biden and his overseas work for clients in Ukraine, China, Romania and other countries. Republicans have long questioned whether those business dealings involved corruption and influence peddling by President Joe Biden, particularly when he was vice president.

Kentucky Rep. James Comer, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee and one of the leaders of the impeachment inquiry, told reporters on Wednesday before Hunter Biden's testimony that the panels have evidence that "Joe Biden was ‘the brand’ his family sold to enrich the Bidens."

President Biden, Comer charged "knew of, participated in, and benefited from these schemes," without providing evidence to back up his claims.

He also hinted that the probe was coming to an end soon, but implied that the impeachment inquiry could continue: "As long as we keep getting new information in, we’re going to continue to pursue. I’m ready to try to begin to close this investigation."

Ahead of the hearing, Raskin told reporters that Republicans should "fold up the circus tent" and move on.

"I think that our colleagues would do best at this point to fold up the circus tent and allow us to focus on something that would actually be of benefit to the American people," Raskin said, later adding: "The Constitutional standard for impeachment is treason, bribery and other high crimes and misdemeanors. We’re still waiting for our Republican friends to articulate what they think the high crime and misdemeanor is in this case."

Yet after conducting dozens of interviews and obtaining more than 100,000 pages of documents, Republicans have yet to produce direct evidence of misconduct by the president. Meanwhile, an FBI informant who alleged a bribery scheme involving the Bidens — a claim Republicans had cited repeatedly to justify their probe — is facing charges from federal prosecutors who accuse him of fabricating the story.

Despite the stakes of their investigation, it's unclear how much useful information Republicans will be able to extract from Hunter Biden during the deposition. He is under federal investigation and has been indicted on nine federal tax charges and a firearm charge in Delaware, which means he could refuse to answer some questions by asserting his Fifth Amendment rights.

The task of interviewing Hunter falls primarily to Reps. Comer and Jim Jordan, the GOP chairmen leading the impeachment investigation. They first subpoenaed Hunter Biden in November, demanding that he appear before lawmakers in a private setting. Biden and his attorneys refused, warning that his testimony could be selectively leaked and manipulated. They insisted that Hunter Biden would only testify in public.

On the day of the subpoena, Hunter Biden not only snubbed lawmakers waiting for him in a hearing room — he did also while appearing right outside the Capitol, holding a press conference where he denounced the investigation into his family.

Both sides ultimately agreed in January to a private deposition with a set of conditions. The interview with Hunter Biden will not be filmed and Republicans have agreed to quickly release the transcript.

"Our committees have the opportunity to depose Hunter Biden, a key witness in our impeachment inquiry of President Joe Biden, about this record of evidence," Comer, chair of the House Oversight Committee, said in a statement to The Associated Press. "This deposition is not the conclusion of the impeachment inquiry. There are more subpoenas and witness interviews to come."

Hunter will be the second member of the Biden family questioned by Republicans in recent days. They conducted a more than eight-hour interview last week with James Biden, the president's brother. He insisted to lawmakers that Joe Biden has "never had any involvement," financially or otherwise, in his business ventures.

Looming large over the interview are developments on the other side of the country in Nevada, where federal prosecutors this month indicted an FBI informant, Alexander Smirnov, who claimed there was a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme involving the president, his son Hunter and a Ukrainian energy company. Prosecutors in court documents assert that Smirnov has had "extensive and extremely recent" contact with people who are aligned with Russian intelligence.

Smirnov's attorneys have said he is presumed innocent.

Republicans pressed the FBI last summer over the informant's claims, demanding to see the underlying documents and ultimately releasing the unverified information to the public. The claim was cited repeatedly in letters that House Republicans sent to impeachment witnesses.

Many GOP lawmakers say they have yet to see evidence of the "high crimes and misdemeanors" required for impeachment, despite alleged efforts by members of the Biden family to leverage the last name into corporate paydays domestically and abroad.

But the Republican chairmen leading the impeachment effort remain undeterred by the series of setbacks to their marquee investigation. Jordan, the chair of the House Judiciary Committee, said last week that the informant's indictment "does not change the fundamental facts" that the Biden family tried to benefit off the family name in several overseas businesses.

And Comer told Fox News on Tuesday that Smirnov was never "a key part of this investigation."

Both Comer and Jordan have insisted for the past year that their investigation and inquiry is focused solely on Joe Biden and what actions, if any, he took while as vice president or president to benefit his family. But at nearly every turn, their probe has had a consistent and heavy focus on Hunter Biden. Several lines of inquiry have been opened into Hunter's international business affairs, his artwork sales and even his personal life and on-and-off battle with addiction.

Meanwhile, Hunter Biden has no shortage of legal headaches off Capitol Hill as he faces criminal charges in two states from a special counsel investigation. He's charged with firearm counts in Delaware, alleging he broke laws against drug users having guns in 2018, a period when he has acknowledged struggling with addiction. Special counsel David Weiss filed additional charges late last year, alleging he failed to pay about $1.4 million in taxes over three years.

He has pleaded not guilty in both cases.