House Republicans released a nearly 300-page report on Monday presenting extensive evidence that President Joe Biden has committed “impeachable offenses.” The joint report, prepared by the Oversight, Judiciary, and Ways and Means Committees, follows a year-long impeachment inquiry. It asserts that “overwhelming evidence demonstrates that President Biden participated in a conspiracy to monetize his office of public trust to enrich his family.”
According to the report, Biden, along with his family and associates, allegedly leveraged his high public offices to amass $27 million from foreign individuals and entities since 2014 through shell corporations intended to “conceal these payments from scrutiny.” This money largely originated from foreign adversaries, including Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, China, Romania, and Panama. The committees also identified an additional $8 million in purported loans to Hunter Biden and James Biden from “Democratic benefactors,” bringing the total to more than $35 million funneled to Biden family members, their companies, and business associates since 2013. The report claims no “legitimate services” justified these “lucrative payments.”
The lawmakers stated, “The Biden family used proceeds from these business activities to provide hundreds of thousands of dollars to Joe Biden,” adding that some of these funds are “directly traceable to China.” A former business partner also claimed that China had “compromised” Biden even before the 2020 election.
U.S. Government for Sale
House investigators found that President Biden engaged in the kind of quid pro quo that Democrats accused former President Donald Trump of in Trump’s first impeachment five years ago. The report notes, “While Hunter Biden served on the board of directors of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma from 2014 to 2019, he utilized his father’s position to relieve pressure the company was under from a government investigation.” Lawmakers further explained, “Vice President Biden changed U.S. policy to withhold a $1 billion U.S. loan guarantee until Ukraine took government action to stop the investigation into the company affiliated with Hunter Biden.”
Republicans referred to the 2019 impeachment as “precedent” for impeaching Biden, citing how Democrats, led by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, defined “abuse of office” as “official power to obtain an improper personal benefit, while ignoring or injuring the national interest.” The report accuses Biden of abusing his office by “monetizing the Vice Presidency for his family’s benefit, placing the welfare of his family ahead of the welfare of the United States.”
Obstruction
House Republicans also accused the Biden administration of obstructing congressional investigators during the probe into the First Family’s financial misconduct over the past decade. They wrote, “The White House obstructed the Committees’ impeachment inquiry by withholding key documents and witnesses,” and added that the administration “impeded the Committees’ investigation of President Biden’s unlawful retention of classified documents by refusing to make relevant witnesses available for interviews and by erroneously asserting executive privilege over audio recordings from Special Counsel [Robert] Hur’s interviews with President Biden.”
In February, Hur declined to press felony charges related to the mishandling of classified information, citing Biden’s age and cognitive state as reasons jurors might harbor “reasonable doubt.”
Republicans highlighted Trump’s first impeachment as justification for possible impeachment-level obstruction charges against Biden, stating, “Following the standard set by House Democrats in the impeachment of President Trump, impeding an impeachment inquiry may amount to impeachable obstruction.”
Democrats Drop Biden After Covering for Him
With voting in some states set to begin soon, any Republican articles of impeachment would likely come after this year’s presidential election and after Biden’s decision to step down in January. Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to replace Biden at the top of the Democrats’ November ticket in Chicago this week. Despite this, Republicans vowed to continue their impeachment inquiry while Biden serves as a lame-duck president.
“Despite the cheapening of the impeachment power by Democrats in recent years, the House’s decision to pursue articles of impeachment must not be made lightly,” they wrote. “As such, this report endeavors to present the evidence gathered to date so that all Members of the House may assess the extent of President Biden’s corruption.”
In June, lawmakers referred Hunter Biden and James Biden to the Department of Justice (DOJ) for criminal prosecution for making false statements to protect the president. Hunter Biden is set to face trial next month in California on federal tax charges following his earlier conviction on gun crimes.
