House GOP Makes Impeachment Case Against Biden Without Proof of Crime

 

WASHINGTON — House Republicans on Monday formally made the case for impeaching President Joe Biden, releasing a lengthy report accusing him of corruption and seeking to allow his family to profit off his office in connection with foreign business deals made by his son Hunter, who has been charged with felony tax crimes.

In the 291-page document, released on the day that Democrats gather in Chicago to begin their party convention, Republicans call Biden’s conduct “egregious” and say he should be impeached for abuse of power and obstruction. But the report contains no proof that Biden, when he was vice president, engaged in any corrupt quid pro quo to benefit his son’s business partners, and Republicans admit they have no direct evidence that he ordered any interference into a Justice Department investigation into Hunter Biden.

“An abuse of power may also be present even if, as some claim, the Biden family was only selling the ‘illusion’ of influence and access,” the report says, adding: “It is not necessary for the House of Representatives to show that the dealings involved a quid pro quo to rise to the level of an impeachable offense.”

The Bidens and several of their business associates have repeatedly denied that Biden was involved in his son’s businesses, despite the efforts of some business partners to cut him into deals after he left the vice presidency.

“I did not involve my father in my business, not while I was a practicing lawyer, not in my investments or transactions, domestic or international, not as a board member and not as an artist, never,” Hunter Biden said in the opening statement of his deposition to the committees in February.

Still, Republicans assert that they do not need to prove that Biden personally profited from his son’s business deals, accepted a bribe or otherwise committed a crime because, they argue in part, Democrats lowered the threshold for impeachment with their pursuit of President Donald Trump in 2019.

“In 2019, House Democrats asserted that impeachable offenses need not rise to the level of criminal conduct,” the report states, adding: “The House may therefore impeach President Biden for noncriminal conduct that significantly impairs the political system or betrays the public trust.”

Like the impeachment investigation itself, the report — prepared by the Oversight, Judiciary and Ways and Means committees after a monthslong investigation — appears to be orchestrated for maximum political impact. It comes days before Democrats are set to formally nominate Kamala Harris, the vice president, as their presidential nominee, and seeks to tie her to what it presents as Biden’s misdeeds, using the phrase “the Biden-Harris administration” 21 times.

The document is the product of more than 30 interviews — including with Hunter Biden and the president’s brother James — more than 30 subpoenas and millions of pages of documents reviewed by the committees.

But the country’s political circumstances have changed greatly since they undertook the inquiry. For one thing, Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., the former speaker who ordered the opening of the investigation last year, is no longer in Congress, having been ousted by his own party and replaced with Speaker Mike Johnson, who also backs the investigation.

For another, Biden is now a lame-duck president, having ended his reelection bid last month after a poor debate performance that prompted Democrats to lose confidence in his ability to defeat Trump.

For months, House Republicans have lacked the votes to impeach Biden, given a reluctance among some in the party to impeach a president on what they see as thin evidence, and Biden’s sudden withdrawal from the race further weakened the sense of urgency to do so. But some right-wing members of Congress are agitating for a snap impeachment, a move some in the party worry could force Republicans who hail from swing districts into politically tricky votes while the GOP is trying to cling to its House majority.

The report cites a litany of accusations against Biden, ranging from the overseas business interests of Hunter and James Biden; his handling of classified documents; Hunter Biden’s sale of artwork; and the slow-walking of a Justice Department investigation into Hunter Biden.

But it relies entirely on circumstantial evidence and inference to make a case against the president.

“President Joe Biden conspired to commit influence peddling and grift,” Republicans assert. “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 account does include a detailed and wholly unflattering portrait of the business practices of Hunter and James Biden, accusing them, in essence, of forming partnerships with questionable overseas business interests, implying they could influence decisions in the United States or deliver big paydays but then repeatedly failing to deliver on those promises.

“Indeed, in many ways, the entire business of Hunter Biden and James Biden centered around hinting at, alluding to or outright promising what Joe Biden’s power could do for certain foreign interests,” the report says.

It says the men’s business practices allowed them to rake in millions of dollars and lavish gifts. Hunter Biden received two diamonds from Chinese businesses and a $142,000 sports car from a Kazakh businessperson. A Chinese company gave James Biden’s wife a credit card to use for personal expenses, despite her having no role in their business deal, the report says.

No law enforcement entity has accused the Bidens of illegal business dealings. And it is neither against the law nor uncommon for the families of powerful people to profit from their proximity to power.

Billy Carter, the brother of President Jimmy Carter, received a $220,000 loan from Libya. The firm of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner has received hundreds of millions from Persian Gulf nations.

House Democrats have tracked at least $7.8 million from 20 foreign governments that Trump’s businesses received during his presidency.

But in their impeachment report, Republicans try to contrast Hunter Biden’s consulting and legal business unfavorably with the ventures of the Trump family.

“The Bidens did not have a golf course, real property, a clothing line or media business,” the report says. “They sold political influence, and their business included ‘consulting’ without being lobbyists.”

And they argue that Hunter Biden did deliver access to the president for his business partners.

“While defenders of Joe Biden have sought to characterize these activities as mere ‘illusions’ of access to Joe Biden, this is wrong,” the report says. “Foreign business associates of the Biden family in fact received actual access to Joe Biden in private settings that were never meant to be uncovered, as is demonstrated by a shifting series of stories to deny and then minimize Joe Biden’s centrality to the influence peddling schemes.”

One key witness repeatedly cited in the report — 165 times — is Hunter Biden’s former business partner Devon Archer, who was convicted of defrauding a Native American tribe.

Archer told lawmakers during his interview that Hunter Biden put his father on speakerphone to talk to his business partners about 20 times over a decade. Archer said that the conversations were never about business, but that they sent a signal to those who heard them that Hunter Biden had access to his father. He has described the interactions as “an abuse of soft power.”

But the impeachment report omits Archer’s testimony that he believed Biden had done nothing wrong.

“Are you aware of any wrongdoing by Vice President Biden?” he was asked.

“No, I’m not aware of any,” Archer replied in an exchange left unmentioned in the document.

The House does not return until September, when it is possible a Republican could force a vote on impeachment. Any impeachment effort, even if successful in the House, is sure to fall flat in the Senate, which is controlled by Democrats.

Lawmakers could also take a shot at reforming ethics regulations for the presidency. There are currently dueling bills on that topic, and deep disagreement about the best way to move forward.

Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., chair of the Oversight Committee, has teamed up with Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif., on ethics legislation, tailored to the case of the Biden family, that would require greater levels of disclosure.

It would require presidents and vice presidents to disclose payments, money transfers and gifts from foreign sources received by themselves or immediate family members; loans or loan repayments with immediate family members; when family members accompany them on travel; and their tax returns.

Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., have introduced a rival ethics bill, tailored to Trump’s business, that would add penalties against presidents who abuse the Constitution’s Emoluments Clause.

That bill would bar the president and other federal officials from accepting payments from foreign governments while in office and for two years after leaving office without first obtaining the consent of Congress. It would also create civil and criminal penalties for unauthorized acceptance of foreign payments.

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The New York Times