Republicans hope to convince the public and even some of their colleagues that an impeachment inquiry into President Biden holds merit at their first hearing Thursday.
The GOP’s sprawling investigation seeks to establish that Hunter Biden engaged in unethical business practices by leveraging his family name and then connect any wrongdoing back to the president.
Republican investigators with the House Oversight Committee have yet to connect that dot, nor have they found a smoking gun to back their most controversial claim — that Biden accepted a bribe from a Ukrainian oligarch. Biden has furiously denied that allegation.
By House Oversight Chairman James Comer’s (R-Ky.) admission, the hearing is “not expected to cover new ground.”
Instead, the panel is set to dig into Hunter Biden’s finances and tax payments as they take testimony from two tax experts — issues already investigated by a prosecutor held over from the Trump administration who was recently elevated to a special counsel.
Oversight’s partner in the investigation, the House Ways and Means Committee, dumped some 700 pages of new documents related to their probe Wednesday — a trove the panel will likely rely on despite the short window given to the public to review them. That panel’s chairman, Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.) will be waived on for Thursday’s hearing.
Democrats have dismissed the investigation as a rehash of a conspiracy theory pushed by Rudy Giuliani ahead of former President Trump’s first impeachment. The FBI never corroborated an unverified tip from a trusted source who relayed that a Ukrainian oligarch had bragged about paying off both Bidens.
“Chairman Comer’s whole sham impeachment drive is based on a lie crafted and peddled by Trump and Rudy Giuliani that has been repeatedly debunked by multiple credible sources,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (Md.), the ranking Democrat on Oversight, said in a statement, adding that Giuliani’s right-hand man, Lev Parnas, “now concedes there is nothing to the Burisma conspiracy theory.”
In a series of three memos, House Oversight Republicans have claimed the Bidens brought in $20 million from foreign interests routed through various shell companies.
But a Washington Post fact check on those claims criticized Comer for overhyping those figures when just about $7 million flowed to Hunter Biden while the rest largely went to associates. It also noted all but one company examined were not shell companies as Comer claimed, but companies that had legitimate business interests.
The hearing comes amid deep GOP divisions over how to stave off a government shutdown set to begin Sunday and even whether to pursue an impeachment.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) ignited the effort without taking a vote, raising questions about whether he would be able to get enough support from his conference.
Some Republicans have expressed reservations about backing such an effort, musing publicly and privately there may not be enough evidence to justify it.
“Without doubt, Hunter Biden’s shady business deals undermined America’s image and our anti-corruption goals, and his conduct was thoroughly reprehensible,” Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) said in a recent Washington Post op-ed.
“What’s missing, despite years of investigation, is the smoking gun that connects Joe Biden to his ne’er-do-well son’s corruption.”
“What’s missing, despite years of investigation, is the smoking gun that connects Joe Biden to his ne’er-do-well son’s corruption.”
Comer has at times expressed frustration over communicating the complexities of the financial transactions.
“Well, I think that some of you need to have a refresher course on the existing evidence, so we’ll probably rehash some of that if for no other purpose to help educate the Washington, D.C., press corps,” he said last week.
Republicans have focused on what they called Biden family business dealings, mapping out money moving in and out of accounts associated with Hunter Biden as well as a few other family members.
Their review of different bank accounts of various businesses associated with Hunter Biden found that he earned money from doing business in Romania, China, Kazakhstan and Ukraine — including $2.6 million from Burisma. The rest of the funds from the Ukrainian energy company went to Biden business associate Devon Archer.
But the Washington Post fact check calls into question the committee’s claims about payments from Russia, specifically $3.5 million from billionaire Elena Baturina. The Post found $2.75 million of that sum, which Republicans identify as going to Hunter Biden, actually went to Archer for a real estate deal the president’s son was unconnected to.
Hunter Biden has dismissed GOP musings about his business ventures, calling himself “a private citizen with every right to pursue his own business endeavors” in an earlier statement through his legal team.
And Democrats are quick to point out that Comer’s team has yet to connect any of that money to President Biden.
“Every single time you hear a Republican say, ‘the Biden family,’ just know that’s because it does not include Joe Biden. If it did, they would say Joe Biden,” Rep. Daniel Goldman (D-N.Y.) said earlier this month.
In their third memo, Republicans also argue that payments to President Biden’s family members can be “an indirect way of corruptly influencing a foreign official,” arguing they don’t need to show any direct flow of money to President Biden.
But the GOP has also failed to indicate what policy shifts, if any, resulted from Hunter Biden’s work abroad or any government actions taken to benefit his businesses.
Oversight has instead pointed to photos showing President Biden meeting with associates of his son over dinner, as well as Hunter Biden taking calls with his father on speaker phone when otherwise taking business meetings.
Raskin echoed a sentiment expressed by many Democrats frustrated that the investigations are moving full steam ahead even as Congress barrels towards a shutdown.
“It’s hard to grasp the complete derangement of this moment. Three days before they’re set to shut down the United States government, Republicans launch a baseless impeachment drive against President Biden. No one can figure out the logic of either course of action. Why shut down the U.S. government, something no enemy nation has ever succeeded in doing?” he said.
“Why impeach a president who has committed no high crimes and misdemeanors, no low crimes and misdemeanors, and no crimes at all?”