House Republicans on Monday, August 19 issued a blistering report accusing President Biden of committing at least two offenses that would justify his impeachment, just hours before he speaks on the opening night of the Democratic National Convention.
Republicans launched the investigation last September after evidence came out that Biden, 81, repeatedly interacted with his relatives’ foreign business partners during his vice presidency and following allegations from two IRS investigators of a far-reaching Justice Department coverup.
Biden engaged in “abuse of power” and “obstruction of justice or obstruction of Congress” by corruptly abetting and concealing a $27 million “influence-peddling racket” which warrant proceedings that could result in his removal from office, the 291-page report by three House committees says.
“Joe Biden has exhibited conduct and taken actions that the Founders sought to guard against in drafting the impeachment provisions in the Constitution: abuse of power, foreign entanglements, corruption, and obstruction of investigations into these matters,” the report says.
“The Committees’ investigative work has revealed that the Biden family — with the full knowledge and cooperation of President Biden — has engaged in a global influence peddling racket from which they made millions of dollars.”
The congressional impeachment inquiry kicked off in September 2023, and the US House of Representatives ratified it by a partisan vote in December 2023, with all Republican lawmakers voting it through.
It compiled interview transcripts from 30 witnesses, involved the issuing of another 30 subpoenas to compel testimony and resulted in millions of pages of business contracts, bank records and other documents.
The report accuses Biden of aiding the shady business ventures of first son Hunter, 54, and first brother James Biden, 75, and then attempting to cover the family’s tracks by resisting oversight from Congress.
Biden, who announced his retirement July 21 after a Democratic mutiny over his mental state, “knowingly participated” in a conspiracy “to monetize his office of public trust to enrich his family” during and after his time as vice president in the Obama administration, the report says.
“Joe Biden’s participation in his family’s influence peddling represents — as quantified by sheer dollar amounts flowing to a public official’s personal interests — one of the most egregious abuses of power uncovered in the history of the United States,” it alleges.
As much as $18 million allegedly flowed from foreign entities to “shell companies” and other accounts linked to first family members from “corrupt dealings” that sold the “Biden brand” to associates in Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Russia and China.
Biden family associates including former Hunter Biden business partners that testified to the panels got another $9 million in profits.
The president met, spoke on the phone and at times dined with the foreign patrons, implying to them that in exchange for the payments “they had access to Joe Biden” that could project their business interests, the report by the House Oversight, Judiciary and tax-focused Ways & Means Committees says.
Biden is not expected to be impeached by the House where Republicans hold a narrow 220-212 mainly because of the diminished political relevance now that Biden has dropped his bid for a second term.
Some of the foreign dealings are likely to be probed in detail next month at Hunter’s federal tax trial in Los Angeles for allegedly evading $1.4 million in taxes between 2016 and 2019.
Those charges and a gun felony case in Delaware, which resulted in Hunter’s conviction June 11, were brought after IRS agents Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler alleged preferential treatment of the first family and false testimony to Congress by Attorney General Merrick Garland about the independence of a years-old probe.
Hunter initially agreed to a probation-only plea deal, but walked away from it last July over demands for broader immunity, including for alleged foreign-agent counts that could implicate his dad.
The Republican report serves as a blemish to the legacy of the chief executive who has repeatedly claimed in public that he “never” spoke about business with his son or brother and that he “did not” interact with their business partners despite a trove of evidence suggesting otherwise.
The report says that “[t]he Biden family’s influence peddling was vast and involved entities and individuals from some of America’s greatest adversaries, such as China and Russia.
“Clearly aware of the political risks associated with Joe Biden’s participation in this scheme, the Biden family and their business associates sought to conceal his involvement by funneling money through an extensive network of shell or third parties’ companies, using code names, and engaging in other obfuscatory tactics designed to maintain, as James Biden described, ‘plausible deniability,’” it says.
“The Committees present this information to the House of Representatives for its evaluation and consideration of appropriate next steps.”
Democrats have argued that Biden did nothing wrong and that he’s just a more than a supportive father to his son Hunter, who has struggled with addiction to alcohol and drugs, while pointing out that members of other first families have had dealings with state-linked foreign firms during or shortly after their powerful relative held office.