WASHINGTON – House Republicans will meet Thursday for a closed-door briefing on the status of the newly launched impeachment inquiry into President Biden, which is expected to bring a deluge of background demands that will ultimately instance could be resolved by the judicial system.
The chairmen of the three committees leading the formal investigation will outline plans to examine bank records, diplomatic files, flight manifests and emails recorded under Biden’s pseudonyms to determine the extent of his role in his son and brother’s business dealings in foreign countries. like China and Ukraine.
President Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) launched the rare impeachment process Tuesday, saying evidence shows Biden lied about his involvement in the companies of first son Hunter Biden and first brother James Biden.
Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.), who has led months-long investigations into Biden’s role in foreign companies, will brief most of the 222-member Republican conference along with the Judiciary Committee chairman. , Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and the prosecutor. Jason Smith (R-Mo.), chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, who has handled investigations into an alleged cover-up by the Justice Department.
The sprawling investigation is expected to include aggressive demands for records dating back to Biden’s eight years as Barack Obama’s vice president, with litigation ready to enforce subpoenas if necessary.
House Republicans will meet Thursday for a closed-door briefing on the status of the newly launched impeachment inquiry into President Biden.Getty Images
“We know someone was paying a large portion of Joe’s expenses because he lives beyond his means,” a source close to McCarthy told The Post.
“One of the goals of the investigation is to determine whether Ukrainian or Russian oligarchs or the Chinese Communist Party are their benefactors, using Jim and Hunter Biden as conduits to launder the money.”
A top House Republican aide told the Post that swing Republicans are “already” being swayed to support the investigation.
Another Hill source said Comer will describe “the evidence the Oversight Committee has uncovered about President Biden’s involvement in his family’s influence-peddling schemes and the progress made to hold the Justice Department accountable for misconduct in the investigation.” “Hunter Biden criminal.”
Comer’s comments will focus on the “progress made since the Republicans last met in July.”
The chairmen of the committees leading the investigation will outline plans to examine bank records, diplomatic files, flight manifests and emails recorded under Biden’s pseudonyms to determine the extent of his role in his son’s business dealings.Teresa Kroeger
There is evidence that the president interacted with his relatives’ associates in nearly all of his lucrative business dealings, including dining twice in Washington with Hunter’s Russian, Ukrainian and Kazakh associates, hosting Mexican associates at the vice president’s residence, and participating in 20 phone calls with Hunter partners. and meet in person with Hunter and James associates from two different companies with entities linked to the Chinese government.
Biden said in June that he defends his claims that “he has never spoken” with his son about “his businesses abroad.”
Hunter, now 53, wrote in a message recovered from his abandoned laptop that he had to give “half” of his income to his father, and Comer in May described nine members of the Biden family who allegedly received income from abroad. . There is also evidence that Hunter paid at least some of Joe’s bills, including phone service.
However, Republicans have not yet proven whether Joe Biden directly benefited financially from foreign income streams or whether Hunter and James actually covered a large portion of their living expenses.
The Oversight Committee said Tuesday it would subpoena the bank records of Hunter and James Biden, after tracing the flow of some foreign funds, including millions from China and Romania, through the bank records of their business partner Rob Walker.
President Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) launched the rare impeachment process Tuesday, saying evidence shows Biden lied about his involvement in the companies of his first son, Hunter Biden, and his first brother, James Biden.Getty Images
The panel put off demanding bank records from the Biden family earlier this year for fear of a contentious court battle.
The launch of the impeachment inquiry will strengthen the House’s position if there is a legal challenge over those bank records.
McCarthy noted last month that Republicans could ultimately request the president’s own bank statements to see if he received foreign income.
For months, the Oversight Committee has accumulated a litany of largely unanswered document requests. In a new request Tuesday, he demanded that the State Department detail the evolution of U.S. policy toward Ukrainian Attorney General Viktor Shokin, whom the president said was fired in 2016 using U.S. foreign aid as leverage.
Recently reported documents indicated that other US officials were surprised when Biden conditioned US aid on Shokin’s ouster in early 2016 and an FBI whistleblower file released in July said the owner of the Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma Holdings, Mykola Zlochevsky claimed in 2016 that he was “coerced” to pay $10 million in bribes to Joe and Hunter Biden in exchange for the then-vice president’s help in overthrowing Shokin.
Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.), who has led months-long investigations into Biden’s role in foreign companies, will brief most of the 222-member Republican conference.
Burisma paid Hunter Biden up to $1 million a year starting in April 2014, when his father took over the Obama administration’s Ukraine policy and the company’s board adviser, Vadym Pozharsyi, dined with the then-vice president in DC in April 2015.
Biden has argued that Shokin was fired for his own corruption, calling the bribery accusation “nonsense” in June and asking, “Where is the money?”
Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss, whose office has led a criminal investigation of Hunter Biden that could soon result in indictments for gun taxes, illegal gun possession and other crimes, has refused to provide Congress with information about the indictment of bribe from Burisma, saying in July that it is part of an “ongoing investigation.”
Meanwhile, the National Archives has been the target of some of the most potentially explosive requests, including the roughly 5,400 documents (mostly emails) from Biden’s vice presidency in which he uses the pseudonyms “Robert L. Peters” and “Robin Ware.” .
The Archives missed an Aug. 31 deadline to turn over the emails and has yet to provide documents in response to other Oversight Committee requests, including Joe Biden’s official schedules as vice president and Air Force flight manifests. Two featuring Hunter Biden and his business partners. .
Only five previous presidents have been subjected to an impeachment inquiry, increasing Congress’s power to acquire documents through the court system if executive branch agencies fail to comply.
Stay up to date with today’s most important news
Stay up to date on the latest with Evening Update.
Presidents John Tyler and Richard Nixon were ultimately not impeached, in Nixon’s case because he resigned in 1974 after Republicans began supporting his impeachment following the court-ordered release of recordings showing he was involved in the cover-up of the raid. Watergate.
The Biden impeachment inquiry is distinguished from others conducted over the past century (against Nixon, Bill Clinton and Donald Trump) because it focuses on a series of alleged misconduct by Biden, rather than specific actions, and the alleged conduct occurred largely in the years before his presidency. presidency.
The Constitution says the House can impeach a president for “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors,” and the decision to do so is left to members of Congress.
The Senate must convict a president by a two-thirds vote, a high threshold that has resulted in four acquittals and no impeachments.
McCarthy launched the investigation without a promised floor vote after a handful of Republicans said the House’s attention should continue to focus on spending cuts ahead of the Sept. 30 government funding deadline and others said they were unaware of evidence that would justify impeachment proceedings.
Republicans have a narrow lead in the House, meaning just five defectors could sink eventual articles of impeachment.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday that the investigation was “baseless” and White House counsel’s office spokesman Ian Sams issued a “memorandum to editorial leadership” in the major new media outlets claiming the investigation “has no evidence that Joe Biden did anything.” wrong,” which “should set off alarm bells for news organizations.”
Sams has noted that GOP House members recently expressed qualms about the investigation, including Rep. Dave Joyce (R-Ohio) who said he was “not looking at facts or evidence at this time” and Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SD) who said: “There is a constitutional and legal test that must be met with evidence. I have not seen that evidence, but I suppose I am not suggesting that it does not exist.”
The Oversight Committee on Wednesday released a list of 22 cases in which Joe Biden allegedly played a role in his family’s foreign dealings, in most cases while he led US policy as vice president.
Categories: Trending
Source: vtt.edu.vn