House Republicans Set To Begin an Impeachment Probe Focusing on the President and His Son Hunter and Likely Lasting for Months

With the first impeachment inquiry hearing into President Biden set for Thursday, Republicans are aiming to kick off the likely months-long public relations campaign with expert witnesses who can explain the legal framework for Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings, how he may have violated the law, and how the president himself could have benefited. On Monday, the House Oversight Committee — which has spent months investigating the Biden family and will now be the main forum for the impeachment process — announced that the public will hear from three witnesses on Thursday morning. Forensic accountant Bruce Dubinsky, law professor Jonathan Turley, and the former assistant United States attorney general for the tax division, Eileen O’Connor, will give testimony to committee members. “Based on the evidence, Congress has a duty to open an impeachment inquiry into President Biden’s corruption,” the committee said in a statement announcing Thursday’s witnesses.“Americans demand and deserve answers, transparency, and accountability for this abuse of public office,” the committee added. The panel says it “will present evidence uncovered to date and hear from legal and financial experts about crimes the Bidens may have committed as they brought in millions at the expense of U.S. interests.”Mr. Dubinsky and Ms. O’Connor have no direct knowledge of what the Biden family has done with foreign business partners overseas, but their expertise in tax issues and accounting will provide the GOP an opportunity to ask questions about the evidence they have uncovered about the younger Mr. Biden’s foreign business dealings and alleged income tax evasion. Mr. Turley has become a favorite legal witness for congressional Republicans in recent years since he testified in defense of President Trump during the 2019 impeachment hearings. The chairman of the Oversight Committee, Congressman James Comer, said the “overwhelming” evidence procured by his and other committees demanded that an impeachment inquiry be opened. “Since January, House Committees on Oversight and Accountability, Judiciary, and Ways and Means have uncovered an overwhelming amount of evidence showing President Joe Biden abused his public office for his family’s financial gain,” Mr. Comer said. “Thousands of pages of financial records, emails, texts, testimony from credible IRS whistleblowers, and a transcribed interview with Biden family business associate Devon Archer all reveal that Joe Biden allowed his family to sell him as ‘the brand’ around the world to enrich the Biden family,” he added. “Joe Biden showed up on at least two dozen occasions to send signals of access, influence, and power to those who were paying the Bidens.”The impeachment hearing will focus on testimony and interviews the committee has already taken from witnesses close to the Biden family, as well as bank records the Oversight Committee has obtained. Earlier this year, just months after Mr. Comer took the committee gavel, House Republicans disclosed that more than $10 million had passed from foreign entities through a family associate, Rob Walker, to the first son, who then distributed money to his family members. The committee has found no evidence of the president directly receiving funds from his son. The committee has also spoken with a former close friend and business partner of the first son, Devon Archer, who told the committee that his old friend was selling the “illusion of access” and the Biden family “brand” to potential business partners abroad in order to secure lucrative contracts. Archer also told committee members that the then-vice president called into no fewer than 20 of his son’s meetings, though Archer stipulated that he never heard the president discuss any business ventures and said that calling his father was one of the first son’s “party tricks” to impress others.The younger Mr. Biden and the president’s brother, James, will be subpoenaed this week, according to the Oversight Committee. The committee has so far disclosed that the younger Mr. Biden received money from business entities and individuals in Russia, Communist China, Ukraine, Romania, and Kazakhstan. Mr. Biden’s Ukrainian ties stem from his time on the board of the energy company Burisma, which was trying to purchase entities in the Western hemisphere to expand its foothold in the natural gas and oil industry. At one point, Burisma was attempting to purchase an entity in Mexico, which the younger Mr. Biden, Archer, and another associate, Jeff Cooper, attempted to facilitate. According to a report from the Washington Examiner, the younger Mr. Biden developed a close relationship with a Mexican politician, Aleman Velasco, and his son, Aleman Magnani, who could help Burisma procure an energy outfit in their country. The elder Mr. Biden would later dine with the two men at the White House in 2014. The first son is also set to appear in federal court on October 3 and plead not guilty to three charges stemming from his purchase of a firearm in 2018 when he was addicted to drugs and alcohol. The younger Mr. Biden previously tried to brush off these criminal liabilities with what Republicans called a “sweetheart plea deal” with Delaware’s United States attorney, David Weiss, who has since been appointed special counsel to further the criminal investigation into the first son. The agreement would have allowed him to avoid prison time for two counts of “willful” income tax evasion and enter a pretrial diversion program for the handgun offense.According to new polling from the Washington Post and ABC News, most Americans are not yet sold on impeaching and removing Mr. Biden from the White House. Survey results released Saturday show that Americans oppose impeachment to the tune of 47 percent, with 44 percent in favor. Despite this, a poll from CNN shows that the vast majority of Americans believe the president was involved in his son’s business affairs abroad. In total, 61 percent of respondents said they believe the president was involved. Of those voters, 42 percent said he acted illegally with respect to his son, while 18 percent said his actions were unethical but not illegal. Just 38 percent said the president was not involved in any way.

House Republicans Set To Begin an Impeachment Probe Focusing on the President and His Son Hunter and Likely Lasting for Months

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