WASHINGTON – House Republicans are considering a vote to formalize the two-month-old impeachment inquiry into President Biden, changing course ahead of high-stakes depositions with Biden’s son and brother.
House Majority Leader Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) told fellow Republicans privately that a vote could soon take place to formally authorize the investigation, although he did not specify a date, a spokesperson told The Post. source familiar with the conversation.
On Sept. 12, then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) opened the investigation without a floor vote, as a handful of Republicans said they were still not convinced.
A successful vote could help unify the GOP’s slim majority behind the corruption investigation and prevent potential court challenges over subpoenas. However, a failed or aborted vote could seriously damage the momentum of the investigation.
The Republican subpoenas require first son Hunter Biden and first brother James Biden to appear to testify on Dec. 13 and Dec. 6, respectively.
Other pending House GOP lawsuits seek official documents from Joe Biden’s eight years of vice presidency, including emails sent to accounts registered under pseudonyms and subsequent communications to his relatives’ business dealings in countries such as China and Ukraine.
The White House accused House Republicans of mounting an “unconstitutional” investigation due to a lack of formal authorization, echoing similar criticism leveled by some Republicans against the impeachments of President Donald Trump in 2019 and 2021.
“The subpoenas and interview requests are intended to advance what you have characterized as an ‘impeachment inquiry,’ even though the House of Representatives has not authorized such an inquiry,” wrote White House counsel Richard Sauber, the November 17 to committee. presidents who lead the investigation.
Emmer’s announcement about plans for a floor vote comes after House Speaker Mike Johnson’s recent coolness to the idea.
“It’s not a legal requirement, so I haven’t made a determination on that yet,” Johnson (R-La.) told The Post on Nov. 9. “I feel comfortable personally and constitutionally with where we are now.” and about how we have proceeded so far.”
A floor vote to authorize the investigation in December would precede possible votes on articles of impeachment against Biden next year.
“It feels like we’re reaching some kind of tipping point,” Johnson added at the time.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said in a recent television interview that Republicans intend to make a decision on the articles of impeachment “early next year” after complete witness statements and acquire documents.
Democrats on Wednesday brushed aside rumors that Republicans were planning to make the investigation official.
Another patently false statement in your failed futile search
They have had access to over 2,000 pages of Treasury Department reports, FBI/DOJ/Natl Archives documents, dozens of hours of DOJ/FBI/IRS testimony. Not to mention the more than 15,000 pages of people’s personal financial records. https://t.co/Xd8lXaJHN9
-Ian Sams (@IanSams46) November 29, 2023
“This is what unites them. It’s not an agenda they’re for, it’s a person they’re against,” said Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.).
White House spokesman Ian Sams called the investigation a “futile search,” even though Republican investigators have uncovered many examples of the president’s interactions with his son and brother’s foreign associates, as well as communications that they directly involve you in those business relationships.
“Another patently false statement in your failed futile search. They have had access to over 2,000 pages of Treasury Department reports, FBI/DOJ/Natl Archives documents, dozens of hours of DOJ/FBI/IRS testimony. Not to mention over 15,000 pages of people’s personal financial records,” Sams tweeted.
On Tuesday, Hunter Biden’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, appeared to flout the impeachment inquiry with an offer to have her client testify publicly on Dec. 13, rather than privately.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) rejected the proposal but said the first son would be welcome to return for a public hearing after the deposition.
Comer accused the scandal-plagued first son of “trying to follow his own rules.”
Johnson defended the impeachment inquiry, arguing that the GOP’s findings about the Biden family have been “alarming.” fake images
Lowell’s proposal reflected the fact that a public hearing would be dominated by carefully orchestrated attempts to garner publicity by both Democrats and Republicans, while a closed-door interview would be conducted largely by the panel’s attorneys.
In previous public hearings focused on the first family’s businesses, Democrats attempted to flip the script by pointing out that former first son-in-law Jared Kushner received a $2 billion investment from Saudi Arabia shortly after leaving office as an adviser to the president. Donald Trump.
Republicans have struggled to keep their own members on message, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) shocked viewers in July when she showed explicit images of Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop at a hearing intended to call attention on IRS whistleblower accusations 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 held a news conference Wednesday to draw attention to a new website containing information about the investigation.
Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-NY) said the site “will provide the public with a one-stop shop to get updates for each of our committees and the evidence they are uncovering.”
“While we’re not happy with the process 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 in a methodical and transparent manner.”
.@SpeakerJohnson on the impeachment inquiry: “These facts are alarming… While we are not pleased with the process here, we have a responsibility to do so… We owe it to the American people to continue this process, but to do so in a methodical and transparent manner.” pic.twitter.com/A6ZDCSBGUf
-CSPAN (@cspan) November 29, 2023
The speaker insisted that Republicans “are not prejudging this” and “will follow the facts wherever they lead,” while describing the findings about the Biden family’s business dealings and possible influence peddling as “alarming.”
As a presidential candidate, Biden repeatedly said he “never” discussed business with members of his family, but evidence has emerged that he actually interacted with associates from China, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Russia and Ukraine.
While Biden, Barack Obama’s vice president, dined at least twice at Washington’s Café Milano with his son’s clients in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Hunter’s former business partner, Devon Archer, told the Oversight Committee the July 31, confirming evidence of those meetings that appeared in laptop files and other witness statements.
There have only been four impeachments of sitting presidents in US history. AP
Dinner guests included Moscow’s former first lady Yelena Baturina, who transferred $3.5 million to an entity associated with Hunter Biden in 2014; Kenes Rakishev, who bought his then second son a sports car worth $142,000; and Vadym Pozharsky, an adviser to the board of directors of the Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma Holdings, who paid Hunter up to $1 million a year starting in 2014, when his father took control of U.S. policy toward Ukraine.
Joe Biden also met with his relatives’ associates on a pair of Chinese government-backed deals, including one formed days after Air Force Two landed in Beijing in 2013 and a second deal in which Biden Sr. was expected would receive a 10% cut. and invoked in a text message from Hunter that immediately preceded the flow of $5.1 million into the Biden family accounts.
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