House approves formal impeachment probe of President Biden’s involvement in household enterprise offers
The House voted Wednesday to authorize Republicans’ ongoing impeachment inquiry into President Biden, launching a proper probe into allegations he helped his household rake in thousands and thousands of {dollars} from overseas enterprise offers whereas serving as vice chairman.
House Speaker Mike Johnson and lawmakers investigating Mr. Biden mentioned the vote, which handed alongside social gathering strains, 221-212, empowers them to acquire witness testimony and different proof from the Biden administration, which has been stonewalling their probe, and to find out whether or not that proof warrants a vote to question the president.
“With today’s resolution we are ensuring that the House will be able to complete its inquiry,” mentioned Rep. Tom Cole, Oklahoma Republican and chair of the House Rules Committee. “We will secure the evidence we need and uncover the facts we need to make the full and fair determination.”
In a press release, the president blasted House Republicans for losing time on a partisan probe as a substitute of engaged on points essential to Americans.
“Instead of doing anything to help make Americans’ lives better, they are focused on attacking me with lies,” Mr. Biden mentioned. “Instead of doing their job on the urgent work that needs to be done, they are choosing to waste time on this baseless political stunt that even Republicans in Congress admit is not supported by facts. The American people deserve better.”
The vote follows a months-long investigation by three House committees which have obtained witnesses’ testimony, financial institution information and different proof they are saying elevate critical questions on Mr. Biden’s involvement in an alleged influence-peddling scheme with China, Russia, Ukraine and different overseas adversaries.
Oversight and Accountability Chair James Comer, Kentucky Republican, mentioned investigators are at a pivotal second of their probe and wish the extra authority supplied by an impeachment inquiry vote to drive cooperation from the Biden administration.
“We will soon depose and interview several members of the Biden family and their associates about these influence-peddling schemes, but we are facing obstruction from the White House,” Mr. Comer mentioned.
Mr. Comer on Wednesday initiated contempt of Congress proceedings in opposition to the president’s son Hunter Biden after he flouted a subpoena to look at a closed-door deposition. The president’s son as a substitute provided to look at a public listening to and lambasted the GOP-led inquiry at a press convention on the garden of the Senate.
He denied that his father was concerned “financially” in his enterprise offers, then left the Capitol grounds with out answering questions.
Republicans say Mr. Biden performed a job in securing his son’s enterprise offers and obtained witness testimony that the then-vice president would cellphone in or cease in to his son’s conferences with overseas enterprise companions.
Hunter Biden, with the president’s youthful brother James Biden and their enterprise associates, had been leveraging Mr. Biden’s highly effective place to make thousands and thousands of {dollars} from offers in China, Ukraine, Russia and different overseas international locations, in line with witnesses who’ve testified within the House probe.
Democrats mentioned the Republicans’ claims about Mr. Biden have been repeatedly debunked and that GOP investigators had been initiating the inquiry on the behest of former President Donald Trump, who was impeached twice when Democrats led the House and is now the dominant front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination in 2024.
“Their whole investigation is built on lies,” mentioned Rep. Jim McGovern, Massachusetts Democrat. “It’s an extreme political stunt designed to distract from how incompetent Republicans are and how obsessed they are with Donald Trump, a twice-impeached ex-president who has been indicted more times that he’s been elected.”
GOP investigators say the proof is piling up in opposition to the president. They have obtained financial institution information displaying the Biden household and associates banked $24 million from overseas enterprise offers and hid the transactions in a labyrinth of shell firms.
House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan, Ohio Republican, mentioned the president’s son on Wednesday modified his tune concerning the nature of his father’s involvement amid the mounting proof.
“All we’ve heard is Joe Biden had no involvement, now his son does a press conference when he’s supposed to be getting deposed and said he wasn’t ‘financially involved,’” Mr. Jordan mentioned. “What involvement was it?”
The House vote launches the third formal presidential impeachment inquiry in 4 years.
A Democratic inquiry led to the impeachment of Mr. Trump in 2019 over his try to get Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to research whether or not Mr. Biden used his authority as vice chairman to drive out Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin. At the time, Mr. Shokin was investigating Burisma Holdings, a pure fuel firm that was paying Hunter Biden a $1 million annual wage.
The Democrats, with 10 Republicans, voted to question Mr. Trump once more in 2021 over his actions main as much as the Jan. 6, 2021, pro-Trump assault on the Capitol. Lawmakers blamed the president for the riotous mob that invaded the Capitol whereas they had been in session certifying Mr. Biden’s victory within the 2020 presidential election.
House Democrats mentioned their impeachment inquiries into then-President Trump had been justified, however the GOP’s probe of Mr. Biden just isn’t warranted.
“We did not need Sherlock Holmes and a magnifying glass to define the presidential crime with Donald Trump,” mentioned Rep. Jamie Raskin, Maryland Democrat. “It came right into this House and smashed us in the face.”
