The House of Representatives on Dec. 13 formalized its impeachment inquiry of President Joe Biden, a move expected to give more firepower to Republicans’ efforts to compel the provision of documents and testimony from the White House and the Biden family.
All Republicans voted in favor of the resolution, which passed 221–212.
The passage came hours after the president’s son Hunter Biden defied a subpoena to provide testimony at a closed-door hearing before Republican investigators. Instead, Mr. Biden showed up outside of the Capitol and demanded that he testify at a public hearing instead. Top Republicans say they will now initiate contempt proceedings against Mr. Biden.
“President Biden must be held accountable for his lies, corruption, and obstruction,” House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) said on the House floor on Dec. 13, hours before the impeachment inquiry vote. “We have a duty to provide the accountability and transparency that Americans demand and deserve.”
The 14-page measure, put forth by Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-N.D.), instructs the House Ways and Means, Oversight and Accountability, and Judiciary committees to continue their probe of President Biden, who has come under Republican scrutiny for his alleged involvement in an influence peddling scheme from his time as vice president and afterward through family foreign business dealings, including with China, that involved his son, Hunter.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) denounced the result, calling the vote a “complete and total embarrassment.”
“Extreme MAGA Republicans have nothing to show for their majority. There’s no evidence of an impeachable offense, and they’re simply bending the knee to their puppet-master-in-chief and twice-impeached Donald Trump,” Mr. Jeffries told The Epoch Times after the vote.
On Sept. 12, then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) announced the impeachment inquiry without a House vote. The White House had argued that the inquiry was illegitimate as a result, prompting top Republicans to concede that while they didn’t think that a vote was legally required, it would be better.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said on Dec. 12 that the inquiry is necessary given that the White House has said it won’t cooperate with Congress in turning over certain records and allowing witnesses to testify.
“So, we have no choice but to fulfill our constitutional responsibility,” he said during a weekly House Republican news conference. “We have to take the next step. We’re not making a political decision. It’s not. It’s a legal decision.”
Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) echoed this sentiment, telling reporters ahead of the vote, “When the president put in his letter last week or the week before that he wasn’t going to answer the subpoenas because we didn’t have a formal inquiry vote, it means we have to have an inquiry vote.”
Resolution
The House Republicans have accused the Biden administration of stonewalling during the probe. In response, the White House claims that it has cooperated in turning over more than 35,000 pages of confidential financial records.The resolution authorizes the House Judiciary Committee to issue articles of impeachment. It also states that the committees can release a report of their findings and can release transcripts of closed-door testimony.
Mr. Johnson has noted that the impeachment inquiry won’t be “rushed,” but will “follow the facts.”
Mr. Comer, when asked by The Epoch Times in September, didn’t rule out subpoenaing President Biden.
“Anything’s possible, but right now, we’re following the money,” he said at the time.
The probe has turned up bank records revealing at least $20 million in payments from foreign entities that were channeled through 20 shell companies to members of the president’s family as well as their business associates.
The payments—sourced from such countries as Russia, China, Ukraine, and Romania—were also observed to have begun during the president’s time as vice president and, in some cases, coincided with his trips to those countries.
Another key finding was that a confidential FBI source had alleged that President Biden received a $5 million bribe to ensure that a Ukrainian prosecutor investigating a Ukrainian company for which his son was a board director was fired.
President Biden last week called allegations about his involvement in his family members’ business dealings a “bunch of lies.”
Democrat Response
House Judiciary ranking member Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) called the vote “absurd.”“There’s absolutely no evidence that the president has done anything wrong whatsoever,” he told The Epoch Times’ sister media NTD before the vote, adding that “to open an impeachment inquiry, when you have no evidence whatsoever of any impeachable crime, or any crime at all, is, frankly, an insult to the intelligence of the people.”
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the ranking member on the House Oversight Committee, also denounced the resolution.
“Today’s impeachment inquiry vote is indeed the part of the continuing effort to deny Joe Biden the office of president of the United States,” he told NTD.
“And we saw it happen Jan. 6, 2021, when Donald Trump incited a violent insurrection to overturn the presidential election, to set aside the work of Congress in the peaceful transfer of power, to disrupt Vice President [Mike] Pence in the execution of his duties.
“And they tried to stop Biden from becoming president then. And now this ridiculous impeachment drive continues to [be an] effort to keep Biden from being able to do his presidential duties.”
The White House also issued an 18-page memo disputing the charges and stated that Republicans are pursuing a “baseless impeachment stunt” despite providing no proof of misconduct by President Biden in a continuous effort to defame the president.
