The House will hold a floor vote next week on whether to hold Hunter Biden, the president’s son, in criminal contempt of Congress for defying subpoenas to testify, Rep. Steve Scalise, the chamber’s majority leader, said Friday.

“Enough of his stunts,” Scalise wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter. “He doesn't get to play by a different set of rules. He's not above the law.”

If approved by the Republican-led House, the criminal contempt case would be referred to the Justice Department, which would decide whether to prosecute. 

The House Oversight and Judiciary committees voted Wednesday to hold Hunter Biden in criminal contempt. The votes followed Hunter Biden’s surprise appearance in the gallery at the Oversight Committee’s hearing.

The measure now goes before the full House.

The first son was subpoenaed to be interviewed by the committee in a private deposition last month. Instead, he appeared outside the Capitol the day of his scheduled testimony reiterating to reporters his willingness to testify publicly, an offer House Republicans rejected. He and his lawyers have said they fear his closed-door testimony would be distorted by GOP lawmakers.

Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., Oversight Committee chair, has defended Republicans’ insistence on a private deposition, saying a public hearing is not efficient for the volume of questions expected to be asked. He promised to release transcripts of the testimony.

On Wednesday, Hunter Biden, flanked by his attorneys Abbe Lowell and Kevin Morris, walked into the Oversight Committee’s hearing room during opening statements and sat down without answering questions from reporters. 

The proceedings quickly turned ugly, with Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., suggesting the president’s son be “arrested right here, right now and go to jail” for his actions.

"Coming into the Oversight Committee, spitting in our face, ignoring a congressional subpoena to be deposed," Mace said. "What are you afraid of? You have no balls to come up here."

Democratic lawmakers argued that Hunter Biden should be allowed to speak publicly.

After Hunter Biden left the room, his attorneys addressed reporters outside the hearing, accusing Comer of "commandeering an unprecedented resolution to hold someone in contempt who has offered to publicly answer all their proper questions."

"The question there is, what are they afraid of?" Lowell asked, pointing out that his client "was and is a private citizen. ... Despite this, Republicans have sought to use him as a surrogate to attack his father."

In a report released Monday, Comer and Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, laid out their case that the younger Biden’s “flagrant defiance of the Committees’ deposition subpoenas — while choosing to appear nearby on the Capitol grounds to read a prepared statement on the same matters — is contemptuous, and he must be held accountable for his unlawful actions.”

House Republicans are conducting an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, which includes investigating possible links between the president and his son’s foreign business deals. They have claimed to have substantial evidence but to date have produced no solid proof that Joe Biden profited from his son’s business deals or that Hunter Biden’s professional interests influenced the elder Biden’s actions in office.

President Biden has repeatedly denied having any involvement in or knowledge about Hunter Biden’s business affairs. 

Speaking outside the Capitol last month, Hunter Biden said: “Let me state as clearly as I can: My father was not involved in my business. There is no evidence to support the allegations my father was involved in my business because it did not happen.”

On Thursday in Los Angeles, Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty to nine felony and misdemeanor tax charges. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.