New House Speaker Ready To Push Forward With Impeachment, as Another Key Witness Claims Justice Department Slow-Walked Probe of Hunter Biden

Speaker Johnson is signaling that he intends to plough forward with the impeachment inquiry into President Biden and allegations of corruption involving the Biden family after the probe had been sidelined by weeks of turmoil in the House GOP. Appearing on host Sean Hannity’s Fox News program Thursday evening, the new speaker said the GOP will push forward with the impeachment inquiry but does not plan to immediately launch an official impeachment, despite the zeal of the Republican base to prosecute the Biden family. “I know people are getting anxious and they’re getting restless and they just want somebody to be impeached,” Mr. Johnson said. “But that’s not — we don’t do that like the other team. We have to base it upon the evidence, and the evidence is coming together. We’ll see where it leads.”Weeks of chaos due to infighting in the House GOP conference over the speakership had thrown the future of the GOP’s investigation into Mr. Biden’s family into question. Republicans are accusing the president of helping his son capitalize on his family name to accrue revenue from foreign clients, including by exchanging pleasantries with his son, who would call him during business meetings. GOP lawmakers have yet to uncover hard evidence that the elder Mr. Biden took bribes, though, which is the more serious allegation that they say is fueling their impeachment inquiry. Mr. Johnson appeared to acknowledge this in his conversation with Mr. Hannity, saying, “If, in fact, all the evidence leads to where we believe it will, that’s very likely impeachable offenses.”House Republicans had begun to hold impeachment hearings before their caucus descended into chaos following the ouster of Speaker McCarthy.Last week, though, the Republican leading the impeachment inquiry, the Oversight Committee chairman, James Comer, signaled that he had cooled on the prospects of holding more impeachment hearings, even though his enthusiasm remained for pursuing the investigation.“I don’t know that I want to hold any more hearings, to be honest with you,” Mr. Comer told reporters last week, adding that he thinks being behind closed doors with witnesses has been proving more effective.Mr. Johnson’s support for impeachment aligns him with the right flank of the conference, which is ready to move forward with formally impeaching the president.Representatives from the more moderate wing of the Republican Party, like Congressman Marc Molinaro, have signaled some apprehension about pursuing impeachment, especially if they don’t have proof of an impeachable offense by Mr. Biden.“I think what Congressman Mike Johnson led is going to be somewhat moderated by the need to lead the conference and ensure that whatever action we take as a body is supported by fact, and law,” Mr. Molinaro told Politico. “He recognizes the divergent interests within the conference.”It’s also unclear what Mr. Johnson’s speakership portends for other impeachment efforts, like the push from some Republicans, such as Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, to impeach the secretary of homeland security, Alejandro Mayorkas, as well as Attorney General Garland, over Republicans’ allegations that the latter slow-walked the investigation and prosecution of Hunter Biden.Even while the House was speakerless, Republicans pressed forward, behind the scenes, with their investigation of the president and his family. This is in line with the strategy Mr. Comer described, of conducting more closed-door interviews rather than public hearings.During a closed-door interview with House investigators on Monday, a former attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, Scott Brady, reportedly told lawmakers that he thinks the FBI slow-walked the investigation into the allegations against Hunter Biden, according to Fox News. At a separate closed-door interview with the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, an attorney for the Central District of California reportedly told congressional investigators that he had declined to partner with the U.S.Attorney for Delaware, David Weiss, in prosecuting Mr. Biden fils because, he said, he was too short-staffed.Yet Mr. Estrada dismissed suggestions that his declining to participate meant the probe was quashed. He told investigators that he believed that Mr. Weiss “was leading the investigation and was able to bring whatever charges he wanted at any point,” according to the Fox News report. Mr. Estrada’s testimony appears to contradict claims made by a former IRS investigator, Gary Shapley, that Mr. Weiss was “not the deciding person” in bringing charges against the president’s son. Mr. Weiss has also denied Mr. Shapley’s claim. Mr. Weiss would later be appointed special counsel by Mr. Garland, allowing him more leeway to charge Hunter Biden where and how he pleased.Also this week, Senator Grassley alleged that the FBI maintained more than 40 confidential human sources regarding various criminal allegations involving the Biden family, including the president, dating back to his vice presidency.

New House Speaker Ready To Push Forward With Impeachment, as Another Key Witness Claims Justice Department Slow-Walked Probe of Hunter Biden

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