(Photo: Adam Schultz , Wikimedia Commons)
- The allegations stem from actions taken during the Biden vice presidency, with the alleged value of that influence-peddling business being $27 million from overseas.
House Republicans hope to spoil the beginning of President Biden’s long goodbye by releasing the much-anticipated findings of their impeachment inquiry the very same day he is set to address the Democratic National Convention.
Republicans have investigated Biden for the better part of two years, subpoenaing witnesses and combing through documents pertaining to his family business dealings. They had long alleged not just wrongdoing, but also a coverup. Democrats demanded particulars and mocked the entire process.
“You have not identified a single crime. What is the crime that you want to impeach Joe Biden for and keep this nonsense going?” exploded Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, the ranking Democratic member of the House Oversight Committee, during a contentious April hearing.
Fired back Oversight Chair Rep. James Comer, “You’re about to find out very soon.”
The 291-page report came three months later. It is a joint product of the Oversight Committee as well as the Judiciary and Ways and Means committees. Its conclusion: Biden engaged in “impeachable conduct” first by participation in his family’s efforts to “monetize his office” while vice president and then by “obstruction of Congress” as president.
The final page of the report reads, “As both president and vice president, Joe Biden has abused his office of public trust, putting his family’s financial interests above the interests of the American people. Although the Committees’ fact-finding is ongoing amid President Biden’s obstruction, the evidence uncovered in the impeachment inquiry to date already amounts to impeachable conduct.”
But Biden is already on his way out the door after a disastrous debate performance that cost him the confidence of his own party. Biden announced last month that he would withdraw from the race to make room at the top of the ticket for his vice president, Kamala Harris. White House officials do not appreciate the “lame duck” label, insisting that the outgoing executive will use his remaining five months in office to rally for sweeping policies ranging from Supreme Court reform to his “Cancer Moonshot.”
If Comer and company have their way, Biden will have to clear his schedule to fight for his legacy. House Republicans seek to make him just the fourth president in history to be impeached by the House. Removal from office, however, which requires a two-thirds Senate vote, is all but impossible.
The allegations stem from actions taken during the Biden vice presidency, many of which have already been made public after the contents of a computer owned by Hunter Biden were released. Critics call the machine “the laptop from hell.” The committees found that the Biden son had foreign business dealings with Russian, Romanian, Chinese, Kazakhstani, and Ukrainian individuals and companies. According to the report, “then-Vice President Biden met or spoke with nearly every one of the Biden family’s foreign business associates.” The alleged value of that influence-peddling business: $27 million from overseas.
Biden not only knew of actions taken by Hunter and his brother, James Biden, the committees charge, he used his position “to garner favorable outcomes for his son’s and his business partners’ foreign business dealings.” They point, for instance, to the then-vice president’s 2014 conversation with Russian oligarch Yelena Baturina and her husband, Yuri Luzhkov, the former mayor of Moscow.
Jason Galanis, a former business associate of Hunter, now a felon serving time for defrauding American Indian tribes, testified earlier this year that the Biden son dialed his father and put him on speakerphone during a dinner with the Russians. The vice president allegedly “exchanged pleasantries” before telling the foreigners assembled, “You be good to my boy.” According to the committees, this is evidence that the president “knowingly participated” and that it is “inconceivable” that the then-vice president “did not understand that he was taking part in an effort to enrich his family by abusing his office.”
Biden has long denied any wrongdoing. First as a candidate, when he said on the campaign trail that he had “never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings,” and later as president, when a White House spokesman updated that denial to say, “the president was not in business with his son.”
The committees also highlight a number of “shell companies” deployed by Biden family members – allegedly to conceal foreign payments from scrutiny. In turn, the committee says the proceeds from that arrangement were used “to provide hundreds of thousands of dollars to Joe Biden.” The conduct: payments made from James Biden, the president’s brother, to the then-vice president. James Biden has said that the money was repayment for a personal loan. The report states, however, that Biden’s brother “did not provide any evidence to support this claim.”
While much of the activity detailed focuses on Biden’s time as vice president, the report alleges in detail that Biden subsequently attempted to cover up misdeeds while president. The committees accuse the Department of Justice of giving “special treatment” to Hunter by “slow walking” a federal investigation of tax charges.
The committee asserts that federal prosecutors “intentionally allowed the statute of limitations to lapse for some of Hunter Biden’s most serious crimes that also implicated President Biden.”
Hunter was found guilty in July of three felonies related to an illegal purchase of a handgun. A crack-cocaine addict by his own admission, he purchased a .38-caliber Colt Cobra in 2018. A federal court found that he lied on a background check by saying that he was not using illegal drugs at the time of the purchase. The president has said he will not pardon his son.
Attorney General Merrick Garland has testified that the U.S. attorney handling that tax case, David Weiss, had “ultimate authority.” Citing the testimony of multiple sources at the DOJ and the FBI, the committee found “that Weiss did not maintain ‘ultimate authority’ over the Hunter Biden matter.”
“Instead, witnesses described the numerous approvals Weiss needed to obtain,” the report reads, including from the Biden Justice Department’s Tax Division and other U.S. Attorney’s Offices, and the complex process he needed to navigate before he could file charges against Hunter Biden outside of Delaware.
Republicans allege that this amounted to undue meddling and a conflict of interest from political appointees to benefit the first family. Weiss was later given special counsel status, the report notes, but only “after the investigation came under congressional scrutiny.”
Republicans also allege that the administration obstructed Congress by withholding key documents and witnesses related to Special Counsel Robert Hur’s investigation of Biden’s retention of classified documents. They want the audio of Hur’s interview with the president. Citing executive privilege, the White House won’t provide the tapes.
As Congress and the public begin the process of digesting the voluminous report, one question remains: What will Speaker Mike Johnson do? A snap impeachment vote could distract from the coming election, potentially placing Republicans from moderate swing districts in a tight spot.
“I think President Biden is the worst president in the history of the country, and there may well be impeachable offenses,” Johnson said at a June press conference. “There is an investigation process,” he said, “and the process continues. So, I’m not making any commitment on that this morning. We have to let the constitutional process and our constitutional responsibility play out.”
That process took a step forward in earnest Monday. The White House and the press were not convinced it would continue amid the slow-moving congressional investigation. Biden made light of that delay in March during remarks at the Gridiron Club’s annual dinner.
“And the biggest joke of the night: an impeachment inquiry,” Biden told reporters assembled for one of the oldest and most elite journalism associations in Washington. “Imagine believing something so baseless that has a zero chance of succeeding. But Republicans would rather fail at impeachment than succeed at anything else.”
But those Republicans, at least on paper, have the votes necessary to impeach in the House of Representatives. They also have a very long report that the president can peruse during his remaining time in office if he so chooses.
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This article was originally published by RealClearPolitics and made available via RealClearWire.
Philip Wegmann
