House Republican investigators assert President Biden engaged in impeachable conduct largely centering around the business activities of family members including his son, Hunter, in a long-awaited impeachment inquiry report released Monday.
The report argues it is “inconceivable” that Biden was ignorant of how his family members allegedly used their connection to the then-vice president to boost their business deals in Ukraine, China and elsewhere. The allegations rely heavily on bits of testimony that are disputed or undercut elsewhere.
It also accuses Biden of having “participated in a conspiracy to monetize his office of public trust to enrich his family,” amounting to abuse of power.
And it alleges Biden obstructed Republicans’ investigations, arguing that “the President may be impeached for the actions of subordinate officials.”
The nearly 300-page report is the conclusion of a yearlong, wide-ranging probe into the president by the House Oversight and Accountability, Judiciary, and Ways and Means committees that included more than 30 transcribed interviews and depositions, including with Hunter Biden and the president’s brother, James Biden; more than 30 subpoenas; “millions” of pages and documents and bank records; and several hearings and markups.
The report does not show President Biden directly received money from his family’s business deals or prove he changed any U.S. policies to aid his family.
And despite the report’s fiery language, it also stops short of recommending impeachment articles or calling for a vote on impeachment — a nod to diminishing GOP support for the probe.
The White House has long maintained the president did not engage in any improper activity, and committee Democrats have argued that Republicans failed to directly connect him to any business activity by his family members. Both see the impeachment inquiry as a partisan attack on a political opponent.
“After wasting nearly two years and millions of taxpayer dollars, House Republicans have finally given up on their wild goose chase. This failed stunt will only be remembered for how it became an embarrassment that their own members distanced themselves from as they only managed to turn up evidence that refuted their false and baseless conspiracy theories,” Sharon Yang, White House spokesperson for oversight investigations, said in a statement.
“The American people deserve more from House Republicans.”
House Democrats also released their own 72-page counter memo Monday morning that argued the GOP had “not only proven, once more, that President Biden committed no wrongdoing, much less an impeachable crime, but has paradoxically vindicated President Biden.”
The report comes as Democrats begin gathering in Chicago for their national convention, nominating Vice President Harris to lead the ticket after President Biden dropped his reelection bid last month — a scenario the GOP wasn’t expecting when it began the impeachment probe.
Dinners and speakerphone calls
The report levels sharp accusations against Biden.
“The totality of the corrupt conduct uncovered by the Committees is egregious. President Joe Biden conspired to commit influence peddling and grift. In doing so, he abused his office and, by repeatedly lying about his abuse of office, has defrauded the United States to enrich his family,” the report says.
In assessing the then-vice president’s role, the report relies heavily on testimony from Biden business associates who had either denied his involvement in the business deals, or whose allegations were disputed by other witnesses.
One section that accuses Biden of “allow[ing] his family to monetize his political influence” notes his presence at a birthday dinner for Hunter Biden with several of his son’s business associates.
It also details Hunter Biden’s practice of putting his father on speakerphone in front of foreign business partners, alleging it helped “seal the deal” for certain transactions, despite President Biden not talking about the business ventures.
One former associate of Hunter Biden’s, Devon Archer, testified that the speakerphone conversations were limited to pleasantries. Jason Galanis, a convicted felon who testified at a hearing from prison, said he inferred one call was “a prearranged call with his father meant to impress the Russian investors.”
Hunter Biden said he recalled meeting Galanis just once for 30 minutes, but the report relies heavily on his testimony.
“It is inconceivable that President Biden did not understand that he was taking part in an effort to enrich his family by abusing his office of public trust,” the report says of President Biden’s interactions with the business partners.
Burisma, Ukrainian prosecutor claim resurfaces
The report also accuses Biden of “use[ing] his status as Vice President to garner favorable outcomes for his son’s” businesses.
That in large part concerns the claim that the then-vice president pushed to condition a loan guarantee to Kyiv on the firing of Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin in order to benefit the energy company Burisma, where Hunter Biden was a board member and took in millions of dollars.
The disputed claim has been the subject of GOP attacks for years — including from former President Trump, who was impeached in 2019 after he pressured the Ukrainian president to investigate the Bidens’ work there.
State Department emails reviewed by The Hill show it was U.S. policy — aligned with the position of others in the international community — to withhold financial assistance until Ukraine shifted its approach on corruption.
The report points to a Washington Post story that cited an unnamed source recalling that Biden made a last-minute decision to connect the loan guarantee with firing the prosecutor, rather than call for his firing separately, on the way to a 2015 speech in Ukraine.
The report does not mention the next paragraph in the Post story, which says other unnamed officials “recall a more disciplined policy process preceding the trip that led to consensus on linking the firing to the loan.”
Republicans last year released notes that the FBI collected from an informant who suggested that Biden had accepted a bribe for those actions, giving fuel to the GOP investigations. But that informant was later arrested by the agency on charges relating to fabricating the bribery allegations, and bribery was not mentioned in the report.
The GOP investigators say they sought various drafts of Biden’s speech from the National Archives, but accused the White House of blocking their release.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (Md.), the top Democrat of the Oversight Committee, said Monday that the GOP report’s failure to tie any activity back to President Biden served as an exoneration.
“What do you call a hellbent 20-month impeachment drive whose managers finally just dissolve into compulsive repetition of thoroughly discredited and meaningless accusations? I would call it a complete exoneration of the target of their pathetic attacks—President Joe Biden. Every lie, distortion and dirty trick thrown at Joe Biden in the 118th Congress has sharply boomeranged and imploded, making our Republican colleagues look inept and absurd,” he wrote in a statement.
Bank records and shell companies
The report accuses the Biden family and associates of taking in $27 million from foreign business ventures.
But the only financial connection the report makes to President Biden is noting a loan repayment from his brother, James Biden, using income earned through various businesses.
Though the report says James Biden provided no evidence of the origination of the loan, records on file with the committee previously reviewed by The Hill show bank accounts belonging to President Biden wired money to his brother, which was paid back shortly after.
The report’s conclusions rely heavily on uncorroborated testimony from Tony Bobulinski, who briefly worked with Hunter Biden on a Chinese investment deal that never came to fruition. Bobulinski later aligned with Trump supporters and asserted the Bidens’ family dealings involved a “complex scheme to maintain plausible deniability” for the then-vice president. Photos of WhatsApp messages displayed on Bobulinski’s cracked phone screen are included in the report.
Hunter Biden’s attorney has asked prosecutors to investigate Bobulinski for lying to the FBI about their business relationship.
The Republicans cite law professor Jonathan Turley, a favorite Republican witness, to argue that “it is not necessary for the improper benefit to be received directly by the President” to be considered a benefit to President Biden.
“The Biden family’s receipt of millions of dollars required Joe Biden’s knowing participation in this conspiracy, including while he served as Vice President,” it says in key findings.
Allegations of obstruction
The report also focuses on testimony offered by two IRS whistleblowers who accused Justice Department officials of slow-walking their investigation into Hunter Biden, questioning whether politics played a role in hesitation to more aggressively pursue the case.
That includes frustration over a failure to bring tax charges against Hunter Biden for the years for which he was working for Burisma, as well as prosecutor David Weiss’s initial resistance to filing charges in states where the whistleblowers said they found the most egregious conduct.
Following Republican pressure, a plea deal prepared for the matter was dropped, and Weiss was appointed as a special counsel, ultimately bringing tax charges in California as well as gun charges in Delaware. Hunter Biden was convicted on the gun charges and faces trial next month in his tax case.
The report also accuses President Biden of obstructing Republicans’ investigation of the probe into his handling of classified documents, noting they were unable to talk to five witnesses with whom they wished to speak.
It’s a charge that was not leveled by the special counsel leading the documents probe, Robert Hur, who said he was able to conduct a fulsome investigation. He determined there was not sufficient evidence to bring any charges against the president, even as he was highly critical of his handling of some classified records.
The committees asked to speak with the witnesses ahead of the completion of Hur’s report. They also argue Biden obstructed Congress by claiming executive privilege over the audio recording of his conversation with Hur. The committee has a transcript of the conversation, and Democrats accused the party of seeking the audio for use in campaign attack ads.
The House earlier this year voted to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress over the audio, and the House GOP has also filed a lawsuit in a bid to obtain it.
What comes next
While the impact of the report is yet to be seen, it seems unlikely that the House will pursue impeachment against the now-lame-duck president, particularly as focus turns to the general election.
Even before Biden ended his reelection bid amid pressure from his party and concern about his mental acuity, there were enough skeptical Republicans to prevent articles from passing in the slim GOP majority — and even if they did, the Democratic-controlled Senate would almost certainly drop the charges.
At the same time, House Republicans have turned their focus to the current Democratic ticket, launching probes into Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
Though the report is the culmination of the impeachment inquiry work so far, it is not the end of the probe: “The inquiry continues as the Committees develop evidence and obtain access to information,” it said, noting that “subpoenas to various entities remain outstanding.”
Updated at 10:54 a.m. EDT