House Republicans on Monday released a long-awaited report from their impeachment probe into President Joe Biden\u2019s activities as vice president, accusing him of obstructing federal and congressional investigations and improperly leveraging his power to benefit his family.<\/p>\n
Despite a trio of House committees finding Biden engaged in \u201cimpeachable offenses,\u201d Republicans did not recommend further action just three months away from an election in which Biden is no longer running. And the report failed to unearth any new evidence that the president, during his time as vice president, directly acted to benefit his family\u2019s business dealings.<\/p>\n
The 291-page report was released by the House Oversight, Judiciary, and Ways and Means committees on the day Democrats commenced their nominating convention in Chicago.<\/p>\n
In a statement released Monday morning, House Republicans sought to tie the report to the \u201cBiden-Harris administration.\u201d Investigators also repeatedly included the vice president\u2019s name throughout the report when referring to the Biden administration.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs Democrats celebrate Joe Biden and crown Kamala Harris as his heir apparent this week, Americans should remember the reality of the Biden-Harris Administration: crime, chaos, and corruption,\u201d said House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) in a statement.<\/p>\n
Democrats unanimously last year voted against authorizing the impeachment inquiry into Biden, decrying a process they argued was designed to avenge the two impeachments of former president Donald Trump.<\/p>\n
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the ranking minority-party member of the Oversight Committee, blasted the report on Monday as \u201cold lies and propaganda\u201d designed for \u201cpolitical purposes\u201d that \u201cdoes not contain evidence or even articulation of a single impeachable offense.\u201d<\/p>\n
The report caps a 19-month probe into Biden\u2019s ties to the business dealings of his son Hunter and those of his brother James Biden while he was vice president. Hunter Biden, who appeared before congressional investigators for a seven-hour deposition in February, has repeatedly denied that his father benefited financially from his business ventures.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll I know is this: My father was never involved in any of my business, ever,\u201d he testified this year. \u201cNever received a cent from anybody or never benefited in any way. Never took any actions on behalf in any way. And I can absolutely, 100 percent state, that is not just in my case but in every family member\u2019s case.\u201d<\/p>\n
Republicans accused Joe Biden of participating \u201cin a conspiracy to monetize his office of public trust to enrich his family\u201d and failing to \u201cfully cooperate\u201d with the House GOP\u2019s inquiry. But the evidence cited in the report largely detailed the efforts of Hunter and James Biden to sell the \u201cBiden brand\u201d and trade off the president\u2019s name in efforts to enhance their influence.<\/p>\n
The report comes as House Republicans and the party are scrambling to refocus their attacks from a lame-duck president to his vice president, Kamala Harris, after Biden last month ended his bid for reelection and endorsed Harris to succeed him. Before the turn of events, House Republicans lacked the votes to impeach Biden after their investigation did not produce sufficient evidence showing that the president was a direct participant in or beneficiary of his family\u2019s business dealings \u2014 or that he interfered with the Justice Department\u2019s criminal investigation into Hunter Biden.<\/p>\n
In their report, however, Republicans argued that they \u201cneed not show that the president directly ordered his subordinates to obstruct an investigation; in certain circumstances the president may be impeached for the action of subordinate officials,\u201d referring to the Justice Department\u2019s investigation into his son.<\/p>\n
Republicans also argued that \u201ccriminal conduct is not needed under the constitutional standard for impeachment\u201d and that Biden can be impeached for \u201cprior conduct that significantly impairs the political system or betrays the public trust.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn 2019, House Democrats asserted that impeachable offenses need not rise to the level of criminal conduct, noting that Congress reached the same conclusion during the impeachments of President Nixon and President Clinton,\u201d the report states.<\/p>\n
The report, which draws on more than 30 transcribed interviews and depositions \u2014 as well as millions of pages of documents and bank records \u2014 alleges extensive efforts by Hunter Biden and his business associates to leverage their proximity to power to solicit lucrative business deals with foreign individuals or entities. The report found that from 2014 to the present, Biden family members and associates made over $27 million from foreign sources, including Russian, Romanian, Chinese and Ukrainian individuals and companies. The report also notes that Hunter and James Biden received $8 million in loans from various benefactors.<\/p>\n
Hunter Biden has repeatedly denied his father\u2019s involvement in his business activities, though some of his close associates have placed the president in proximity to those involved with some of their deals \u2014 undermining Joe Biden\u2019s claims that he was unaware of Hunter\u2019s activities. The report rehashes a number of Biden phone calls and appearances at dinners as vice president in the course of Hunter\u2019s business dealings. But none of the allegations ultimately meet the GOP\u2019s claims that his son\u2019s business activities fueled an influence-peddling operation that enriched the president directly.<\/p>\n
The report also focuses on Joe Biden\u2019s handling of classified documents and the federal investigation into his son as two central examples of Biden\u2019s \u201cunprecedented and baseless obstruction of the Committees\u2019 investigative efforts.\u201d Hunter Biden was found guilty of felony gun charges in federal court in June and he will be on trial in September on nine federal tax charges \u2014 probes started during the Trump administration that Republicans have accused Justice Department officials of deliberately delaying.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvidence shows that Department officials slow-walked the investigation, informed defense counsel of future investigative actions, prevented line investigators from taking otherwise ordinary investigative steps, and allowed the statute of limitations to expire on the most serious felony charges,\u201d the report states, relying on allegations made by IRS whistleblowers last year regarding the criminal investigations into the president\u2019s son.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
House Republicans on Monday released a long-awaited report from their impeachment probe into President Joe Biden\u2019s activities as vice president, accusing him of obstructing federal and congressional investigations and improperly leveraging his power to benefit his family. Despite a trio of House committees finding Biden engaged in \u201cimpeachable offenses,\u201d Republicans did not recommend further action […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":8129,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}