House Republicans release Biden impeachment report but next steps are uncertain – Technologist

“The totality of the corrupt conduct uncovered by the Committees is egregious,” wrote the House Oversight and Accountability, Judiciary and Ways & Means panels leading the inquiry.

The report said the Constitution’s “remedy for a president’s flagrant abuse of office is clear: impeachment by the House of Representatives and removal by the Senate”.

In a statement on Monday, Johnson was non-committal on what the House will do with the findings. “We encourage all Americans to read this report,” he said.

Through bank records, interviews from some 30 witnesses, whistle-blower accounts and millions of documents, House Republicans allege a years-long practice by Hunter Biden and his associates to solicit foreign business deals using the family’s proximity to power in Washington.

Much of the focus of the report is not on Biden’s time as president, but on the years when the Biden family was in turmoil after the 2015 death of his eldest son, Beau, and as the vice-president was bowing out of elected office, declining to run for president in 2016.

Hunter Biden has acknowledged a serious addiction to crack in these years. He was convicted in June of gun charges and is set to stand trial next month on federal tax charges.

To tie the elder Biden to his son’s actions, the Republicans rely on a series of phone calls and pop-by dinner meeting visits Joe Biden made while Hunter was conducting business. At times, Hunter would put his dad on speakerphone for his guests as the father and son exchanged pleasantries.

The Bidens are a famously tight-knit family and acknowledge they speak almost daily, including during this time, with the father checking on his son’s well-being.

In his own defiant closed-door deposition to House investigators, Hunter Biden insisted he did not involve his father in his business.

The report said it is “inconceivable” that President Biden did not understand what was going on.

“President Biden participated in a conspiracy to monetise his office of public trust to enrich his family,” the report claims.

Joe Biden himself declined a request to testify before the House.

02:13

Joe Biden quits US presidential race to endorse VP Kamala Harris

Joe Biden quits US presidential race to endorse VP Kamala Harris

Touchbacks to Trump’s impeachments at the hands of Democrats run throughout the report’s pages, as Republicans work to contrast his grounds for removal to Biden family’s dealings and “grift”.

But the difference are stark, as the indicted Trump faces actual criminal charges, including in the conspiracy to overturn Biden’s 2020 election and draw supporters to Washington on the day of the January 6 Capitol attack in 2021.

The report focuses heavily on what Republicans have long alleged was a pattern of “slow-walking” investigative steps and delaying enforcement actions to the benefit of the president’s son.

But the report provides no evidence that Biden had any involvement in his son’s investigation, which was launched under Trump’s presidency and has been led by a Delaware lawyer appointed by Trump. The lawyer, David Weiss, was kept on by Garland to insulate the investigation from claims of political interference.

Garland has insisted that no one at the White House gave him or other senior officials at the Justice Department direction about the handling of the Hunter Biden investigation.

Beyond Hunter Biden, the report includes details of the involvement of Joe Biden’s brother, James, in the various family businesses.

Republicans have pointed to a series of payments they claim show the president benefited from his brother’s work. They point to a US$200,000 personal check from James Biden to Joe Biden on the same day in 2018 that James Biden received an equal amount from Americore, a healthcare company.

House Democrats have defended the transaction, pointing to bank records they say indicate James Biden was repaying a loan provided by his brother, who had wire transferred US$200,000 to him about six weeks earlier. The money changed hands while Joe Biden was a private citizen.

Short of impeaching Biden, the House Republicans have issued criminal referrals recommending the Justice Department prosecute Hunter Biden and James Biden, accusing them of making false statements to Congress as part of the Republican Party investigation. Lawyers for those men have argued those claims are baseless or a distraction.

Until recently, the president had been a focal point for Republicans in Congress, but his decision last month to drop out of the presidential race and Harris’ ascent to the top of the ticket have forced Republican Party leaders to re-evaluate their marquee investigation.

The report released on Monday makes more than 20 mentions of the “Biden-Harris administration”, while previous releases from the committees investigating Biden typically only made direct references to him.