WASHINGTON — Republicans in the House of Representatives have their first deposit survey report to the president Joe Bidenalleging abuse of power and obstruction of justice in his son’s financial affairs Hunter Biden and family members.
The nearly year-long investigation by Republicans stops short of alleging criminal wrongdoing by the president. Instead, the nearly 300-page report is set to be released Monday ahead of the Democratic National Convention covers familiar ground, alleging that the Biden family corruptly abused its “brand” in business ventures that exceed the high bar for impeachment under the Constitution.
With Biden no longer eligible for re-electionthe next steps are very uncertain. Republicans in the House of Representatives have not yet support from within our own ranks to actually remove the president, and impeachment by the Senate is even further away. Many Republicans prefer to focus on the presumptive Democratic Party presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harrisand research is currently underway.
The White House has dismissed the House impeachment inquiry as a “stunt” and encouraged House Republicans to “Go on.”
“The totality of the corrupt behavior exposed by the committees is outrageous,” wrote the House of Representatives Oversight and Accountability, Justice and Manners Committee. & Means panels to lead the investigation.
The report states that the Constitution “provides clear remedies for flagrant abuses of power by the president: impeachment by the House of Representatives and removal by the Senate.”
Republicans have spent most of their time in the House majority hyper-focused on Biden and his family’s businesses, encouraged by Donald Trump if the dropped off twice And indicted former president makes a comeback in the White House.
The impeachment inquiry is a cornerstone of the Republican Party’s efforts in the House of Representatives, launched by former chairman Kevin McCarthy shortly before he was removed from his leadership position and formalized in December under new Chairman Mike Johnson. Republicans are investigating many aspects of the Biden family’s finances, dating back to 2009 when he was vice president to Barack Obama.
Using bank records, interviews with some 30 witnesses, whistleblower reports and millions of documents, House Republicans allege that Hunter Biden and his associates have been doing business abroad for years by taking advantage of the family’s proximity to power in Washington.
The report focuses not so much on Biden’s time as president, but on the years in which he was president. the Biden family was in turmoil after the death of his eldest son, Beau, in 2015 and when the vice president resigned from elected office and declined to run for president in 2016.
Hunter Biden has acknowledged a serious crack addiction in recent years. He was convicted in June of felony firearm charges and will be tried next month federal taxes.
Former Hunter Biden staffer Devon Sagittariuswho was sentenced to a year in prison in 2022 in a separate case, told the commission: “Ultimately, part of what was supplied is the brand.”
To link the elder Biden to his son’s actions, Republicans are relying on a series of phone calls and brief dinner visits that Joe Biden made while Hunter was doing business. At times, Hunter would put his father on speaker for his guests, while father and son exchanged pleasantries.
The Biden family is known for having a close family bond and they speak to each other almost daily. Even during this period, the father asks how his son is doing.
In his own defiant, private statement to House investigators, Hunter Biden insisted he did not concern his father in his company.
In all, House Republicans allege the Biden family and its associates received about $27 million in business payments from associates or clients in Russia, China and other countries. They allege another $8 million in loans, including some from Hunter Biden benefactor Kevin Morris, a Hollywood lawyer, and question the purchases of the son’s artwork.
The report says it is “inconceivable” that President Biden did not understand what was going on.
“President Biden participated in a conspiracy to exploit his office of public trust to enrich his family,” the report alleges.
Biden himself a request denied to testify before the House.
Touchbacks to Trump’s deposits at the hands of Democrats, the report’s pages are being flooded with evidence as Republicans attempt to contrast its grounds for impeachment with the Biden family’s actions and “fraud.”
But the difference is stark, as the indicted Trump actually faces criminal charges, including conspiracy to overturn Biden’s 2020 election and lure supporters to Washington on Election Day. January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
The report also accuses Biden of obstructing justice in the investigation, revisiting previously raised complaints about the Justice Department’s handling of the Hunter Biden investigation. Attorney General Merrick Garland has vigorously denied those allegations and defended the department against claims of political influence.
The focus has been on what Republicans have long seen as a pattern of “slow-moving” investigative steps and delaying enforcement actions to benefit the president’s son.
But the report provides no evidence that Biden was involved in his son’s investigation, which was launched during the Trump presidency and was led by a Delaware U.S. attorney appointed by Trump. U.S. Attorney David Weiss was retained by Garland to shield the investigation from claims of political interference.
Garland has maintained that no one in the White House gave him or other senior Justice Department officials instructions on how to handle the Hunter Biden investigation.
In addition to Hunter Biden, the report also details the involvement of Joe Biden’s brother, James, in the various family businesses.
Republicans have pointed to a series of payments that they say show the president profited from his brother’s work. They point to a $200,000 personal check from James Biden to Joe Biden on the same day in 2018 that James Biden received an equal amount from Americore, a health care company.
House Democrats have defended the transaction, pointing to bank records they say indicate James Biden was in the process of paying back a loan given to him by his brother, who had wired him $200,000 about six weeks earlier. The money changed hands when Joe Biden was a private citizen.
Without impeaching Biden, House Republicans have introduced a bill criminal references recommend that the Justice Department prosecute Hunter Biden and James Biden, accusing them of making false statements to Congress as part of the GOP investigation. Lawyers for the men have argued that those claims are baseless or distracting.
Until recently, the president was a major focus for Republicans in Congress, but his decision last month to withdraw from the presidential race and the emergence of Harris as a primary candidate have forced GOP leaders to reevaluate their key investigation.
A year ago, GOP lawmakers hoped the Biden investigation would build a strong enough case for the “high crimes and misdemeanors” of impeachment. But the longer the investigation dragged on, and the less direct evidence Biden investigators could produce in public hearings or even closed sessions, the more worried moderate Republicans became who were wary of a vote on the matter.
The report published Monday refers to the “Biden-Harris administration” more than two dozen times, while previous publications from the committees investigating Biden typically only referred to him directly.
While Harris is not the only one named in the report, the same committees leading the investigation have launched new investigations into her and her vice presidential nominee, Tim Walz.
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Associated Press journalists Alanna Durkin Richer, Gary Fields, Fatima Hussein and Nicholas Riccardi contributed to this report.
