House GOP Claims Biden Abused Power, Obstructed Justice in Impeachment Report, With Next Steps Uncertain

WASHINGTON — House Republicans have released their initial impeachment inquiry report into President Biden, alleging an abuse of power and obstruction of justice in the financial dealings of his son Hunter Biden and family associates.The nearly yearlong inquiry by Republicans stops short of alleging any criminal wrongdoing by the president. Instead, the almost 300-page report out Monday ahead of the Democratic National Convention covers familiar ground, asserting the Biden family traded on its “brand” in business ventures in corrupt ways that rise to the Constitution’s high bar for impeachment.With Mr. Biden no longer running for reelection, next steps are highly uncertain. House Republicans have not had support from their own ranks to actually impeach the president, and removal by the Senate is even further afield. Many Republicans prefer to focus attention on the Democratic Party’s presumptive presidential nominee, Vice President Harris, with some probes getting underway.The White House has dismissed the House impeachment inquiry as a “stunt” and encouraged House Republicans to “move on.”“The totality of the corrupt conduct uncovered by the Committees is egregious,” wrote the House Oversight and Accountability, Judiciary, and Ways & Means panels leading the inquiry.The report said the Constitution’s “remedy for a President’s flagrant abuse of office is clear: impeachment by the House of Representatives and removal by the Senate.”Republicans have spent the better part of their time in the House majority with a hyper focus on Mr. Biden and his family’s businesses, encouraged by the twice-impeached and indicted former president, Donald Trump, making a comeback bid for the White House.The impeachment inquiry has been a cornerstone of the House GOP’s effort, launched by Speaker McCarthy shortly before he was booted from leadership and formalized in December under Speaker Johnson. Republicans are investigating many aspects of Biden family finances going back to 2009 when he was vice president alongside President Obama.Through bank records, interviews from some 30 witnesses, whistleblower accounts and millions of documents, House Republicans allege a years-long practice by Hunter Biden and his associates to solicit foreign business deals using the family’s proximity to power in Washington.Much of the focus of the report is not on Mr. Biden’s time as president, but on the years when the Biden family was in turmoil after the 2015 death of his oldest son, Beau, and as the vice president was bowing out of elected office, declining to run for president in 2016.Hunter Biden has acknowledged a serious addiction to crack cocaine in these years. He was convicted in June of felony gun charges and is set to stand trial next month on federal tax charges.A former Hunter Biden associate, Devon Archer, who was sentenced to a year in prison in 2022 in another matter, told the committee, “At the end of the day, part of what was delivered is the brand.”To tie the elder Biden to his son’s actions, the Republicans rely on a series of phone calls and pop-by dinner meeting visits the elder Mr. Biden made while his son Hunter Biden was conducting business. At times, Hunter Biden would put his dad on speakerphone for his guests as the father and son exchanged pleasantries.The Bidens are a famously tight-knit family and acknowledge they speak almost daily, including during this time, with the father checking on his son’s well-being.In his own defiant closed-door deposition to House investigators, Hunter Biden insisted he did not involve his father in his business.All told, the House Republicans allege the Biden family and its associates received some $27 million in business payments from partners 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 attorney, and question the purchases of the son’s artwork.The report said it is “inconceivable” that Mr. Biden did not understand what was going on. “President Biden participated in a conspiracy to monetize his office of public trust to enrich his family,” the report claims.The report released Monday makes more than 20 mentions of the “Biden-Harris administration,” while previous releases from the committees investigating Mr. Biden typically only made direct references to him.And while ms. Harris is not mentioned on her own in the report, the same committees leading the inquiry have begun to open new probes into her and her vice presidential pick, Governor Walz.

House GOP Claims Biden Abused Power, Obstructed Justice in Impeachment Report, With Next Steps Uncertain

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