WASHINGTON – Members of the House of Representatives are considering holding a vote to formalize the two-month impeachment investigation of President Biden – changing tactics before a high-risk deposition with Biden’s son and brother.
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) told fellow Republicans privately that a vote to formally authorize the investigation could come soon, though he did not specify a date, a source familiar with the conversation told The Post.
On Sept. 12, then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) opened the investigation without a floor vote, as a handful of Republicans said they weren’t sold.
A successful vote could help consolidate the slim GOP majority behind the corruption probe and preempt possible court challenges over the subpoena. However, a failed or dropped vote could seriously damage the momentum of the investigation.
The Republican subpoena requires first son Hunter Biden and first brother James Biden to sit for depositions on December 13 and December 6, respectively.
Other pending House GOP demands seek official documents from vice president Joe Biden for eight years, including emails sent to accounts registered to pseudonyms and communications following his relatives’ dealings in countries such as China and Ukraine.
The White House has accused House Republicans of conducting an “unconstitutional” investigation due to a lack of official authorization – echoing similar criticisms leveled by some Republicans against the impeachment of President Donald Trump in 2019 and 2021.
“The subpoena and interview request are said to be an extension of what you describe as a ‘prosecution investigation,’ even though no such investigation has been authorized by the House of Representatives,” White House lawyer Richard Sauber wrote on November 17 to the committee chairman leading the investigation.
Emmer’s announcement of the plan for a floor vote follows House Speaker Mike Johnson’s recent coolness toward the idea.
“It’s not required by law, so I haven’t made a determination on that yet,” Johnson (R-La.) told The Post on Nov. 9. “I am personally and constitutionally comfortable with where we are now and with how we have come this far.”
A floor vote to authorize the investigation in December would precede a possible vote on articles of impeachment against Biden next year.
“It feels like we’re coming to some sort of tipping point,” Johnson added at the time.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said in a recent TV interview that Republicans intend to make a decision on the articles of impeachment “early next year” after completing witness depositions and obtaining documents.
Democrats on Wednesday did not dismiss talk of Republicans planning a formal investigation.
Another bogus claim in a failed wild goose chase
They have gained access to 2,000+ pages of Treasury Department reports, documents from the FBI/DOJ/Natl Archives, dozens of hours of testimony from the DOJ/FBI/IRS. Not to mention 15,000+ pages of people’s personal financial records. https://t.co/Xd8lXaJHN9
— Ian Sams (@IanSams46) November 29, 2023
“This is what binds them together. It’s not their agenda, it’s the people they’re fighting,” said Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.).
White House spokesman Ian Sams called the investigation a “wild goose chase” — even though GOP investigators have found numerous examples of the president interacting with his son and his brother’s foreign associates, as well as communications that directly implicate him in those business relationships.
“Another false claim in a failed wild goose chase. They have gained access to 2,000+ pages of Treasury Department reports, documents from the FBI/DOJ/Natl Archives, dozens of hours of testimony from the DOJ/FBI/IRS. Not to mention 15,000+ pages of people’s personal financial records,” tweeted Sams.
On Tuesday, Hunter Biden’s attorney Abbe Lowell appeared to poke fun at the impeachment inquiry with an offer for his client to testify publicly on Dec. 13, instead of privately.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) slammed the proposal, but said the first child would be welcome to return for a public hearing after deposition.
Comer accused the scandal-plagued first child of “trying to play by his own rules.”
Johnson defended the impeachment inquiry, arguing that the GOP’s findings about the Biden family had been “alarming.” Getty Images
Lowell’s proposal reflects the fact that public hearings would be dominated by carefully staged attempts to gain publicity by both Democrats and Republicans, while closed-door interviews would be conducted largely by lawyers for the panel.
Previous public hearings focused on the first family’s business dealings have featured Democrats trying to flip the script by pointing to former first son-in-law Jared Kushner who received a $2 billion investment from Saudi Arabia shortly after he left his post as an adviser to President Donald Trump.
Republicans have struggled to keep their own members on message, with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) stunned audiences in July when she displayed explicit images from Hunter Biden’s laptop left behind at a hearing aimed at drawing attention to the IRS whistleblower’s allegations of a cover-up in the president’s son’s tax fraud investigation.
House Republican leadership provided an update on the impeachment inquiry. Reuters
House Republican leaders hosted a press conference Wednesday to draw attention to a new website containing information about the investigation.
Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY) said the website would “provide the public with a one-stop shop for updates on each of our committees and the evidence they find.”
“While we’re not happy with the proceedings here, we have a responsibility to do it,” Johnson said. “We owe it to the American people to continue this process but to do so methodically and transparently.”
.@SpeakerJohnson on the impeachment inquiry: “These facts are troubling…While we are not pleased with the proceedings here, we have a responsibility to do so…We owe it to the American people to continue this process but to do so in an orderly and transparent manner.” pic.twitter.com/A6ZDCSBGUf
— CSPAN (@cspan) November 29, 2023
The speaker stressed that Republicans “did not foresee this” and “will follow the facts wherever they lead,” while also describing the findings about the Biden family’s business dealings and possible influence peddling as “disturbing.”
As a presidential candidate, Biden repeatedly said he “never” talked about business with family members, but evidence has emerged that he actually interacted with their associates from China, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Russia and Ukraine.
During Barack Obama’s vice presidency, Biden dined at least twice at Washington’s Café Milano with his son’s Eastern European and Central Asian clients, Hunter’s former business partner Devon Archer told the Oversight Committee on July 31 — confirming evidence of the meeting that emerged in laptop files and testimony other witnesses.
There have only been four impeachments of a sitting president in US history. AP
Dinner guests included former Moscow first lady Yelena Baturina, who transferred $3.5 million to Hunter Biden-related entities in 2014; Kenes Rakishev, who bought his then second son a $142,000 sports car; and Vadym Pozharsky, a board adviser to Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma Holdings, who paid Hunter up to $1 million a year starting in 2014, when his father assumed control of US policy toward Ukraine.
Joe Biden also met with his fellow relatives at a pair of Chinese government-backed affairs, including a day set up after Air Force Two landed in Beijing in 2013 and a second effort where the elder Biden got a 10% cut and was called out in a text message. a shakedown from Hunter that immediately preceded the flow of $5.1 million to the Biden family account.
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