WASHINGTON (AP) — The House impeachment inquiry into the president Joe Biden is about to come to an end, lacking political appetite within Republican ranks to pursue a real impeachment, but facing political pressure to deliver results after months of work.
The chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, Republican. James Comer, made a final push during Wednesday’s hearing, announcing he would seek testimony from Biden himself, saying the Democratic president was either “complicit or incompetent” in his son Hunter Biden’s business dealings. It is highly unlikely that Biden will appear before the committee.
“We need to hear from the president himself,” Comer said at the end of the nearly eight-hour hearing.
The White House told Republicans to “move on” and focus on the “real problems” that Americans want to solve.
“This is a sad affair at the end of a deadlocked impeachment process,” spokesman Ian Sams said. “Call it a day, buddy.”
Having produced no tangible evidence of presidential wrongdoing, it is clear that lengthy GOP impeachment inquiry is about to end. Soliciting testimony from the president is a possible final act. Rather than drafting articles of impeachment against Biden, Comer is considering possible criminal referrals of the family to the Justice Department, a largely symbolic move.
The committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, said Republicans had turned the investigation into a “laughing stock” and that the “comedy of errors” of Biden’s impeachment inquiry was finally “coming to an end.” collapse.”
Republicans launched their first investigations into the president after taking control of the House last year, eager to keep Biden at the high bar. Accused. The House, with a Democratic majority, impeached Republican Donald Trump twice during his presidency.
As Trump and Biden facing another likely rematch in November, investigation focuses on Hunter Biden’s often complicated business dealings and troubled personal lifeparticularly in the years leading up to Joe Biden becoming president.
The committee claims the Bidens traded on the last name, an alleged influence-peddling scheme in which Republicans attempt to link a handful of phone calls or dinner meetings between Joe Biden, when he was vice president or out of office, and Hunter Biden. and his business associates.
Hunter Biden, who faces gun fees and taxes in separate cases, testified behind closed doors last month in a deposition that filled more than 200 pages but left Comer’s committee without evidence amounting to “high crimes and misdemeanors” that would indict a president.
“My father was never involved in my business,” Hunter Biden testified.
It would be rare, but not unprecedented, for a president to appear before Congress. Abraham Lincoln spoke privately to the House Judiciary Committee about a leaked speech and Gerald Ford spoke about, among other things, his pardon of former President Richard M. Nixon.
Aboard Air Force One as Biden flew from Arizona to Texas on Wednesday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said: “Republicans must abandon this stunt and join to the president to focus on the real issues that matter to the American people. »
Wednesday’s testimony came from an unusual group of witnesses, some with complicated backgrounds.
Jason Galanis is serving a lengthy federal prison sentence in Alabama for fraudulent schemes and appeared before lawmakers remotely. Tony Bobulinski, a former business associate of Hunter Biden, made his claims against the family public during the first Trump-Biden presidential debate in 2020.
Democrats called Lev Parnas testify, relying on convicted businessman who played a central role in Trump’s first impeachment as an associate of Rudy Giuliani working to dig up political dirt on Joe Biden ahead of the 2020 election. Parnas has since played a key role in dispelling the prime corruption allegation House GOP against the Bidens.
Testifying by video, Galanis told lawmakers he hoped to make “billions” from Hunter Biden and other associates, using the Biden last name in their overseas business dealings.
Galanis described a particular moment in May 2014 when Hunter Biden put his father on speakerphone for a brief conversation with potential foreign business partners — a Russian oligarch and her husband — at a party at a New York restaurant.
But Hunter Biden directly rejected any involvement with Galanis in his own deposition, testifying that he met with Galanis for about 30 minutes 10 years ago.
In previous testimony, Galanis, who was convicted of several fraudulent schemes, acknowledged that he unsuccessfully sought clemency during the final days of the Trump presidency.
Bobulinski told the committee that he met Joe Biden twice in 2017 at a conference in Los Angeles, through Hunter Biden, including once for about 45 minutes, when they talked mostly about family and not business.
While Hunter Biden said his father was never involved in his business dealings, Bobulinski said, “It’s clear to me that Joe Biden was the brand.”
Parnas told the committee he had seen “no evidence” of corruption from the Biden family in its overseas work.
Before his conviction, Parnas had been a central figure in Trump’s first indictment for withholding aid to Ukraine.
Parnas described helping Giuliani spread the false allegations against Biden to conservative media. Trump’s team claimed that Joe Biden, as vice president, intervened in the firing of a Ukrainian prosecutor to help Hunter Biden with his work on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma. In fact, Western allies also wanted the prosecutor fired over corruption allegations.
In launching their impeachment inquiry into Biden last year, House Republicans relied largely on unverified claims from an FBI informant released by Senate Republicans, suggesting that Burma-related payments totaling $10 million to the Bidens were discussed. Alexander Smirnov, now a former FBI informant, was arrested last month and pleaded not guilty to accusations that he fabricated corruption allegations.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., asked Republicans why they continued to pursue impeachment proceedings, knowing the $10 million claim was false, and she demanded to know what crime or crimes, according to them, Biden, as president, would have committed to justify impeachment.
“Impeachment 101,” she said. “I hear about Biden’s family. I hear about this and that. I don’t hear the specific allegation.
One Democrat, Rep. Jared Moskowitz of Florida, virtually dared Republicans to begin impeachment proceedings, introducing the motion himself. It came to nothing.
“They will never impeach Joe Biden,” Moskowitz said. “It’s all a sham.”
With the slim Republican majority in the House of Representatives further reduced by early retirements, Republicans may not have enough support in their ranks to pursue articles of impeachment against the president, particularly because Democrats would likely vote against such charges.
Instead, Comer explored possible criminal charges that could open the door to legal action in a future administration.
It is unclear who would be charged and for what offenses. Comer also discussed developing ethics legislation to combat influence peddling or foreign lobbying among public officials.
The committee will release a final report with its recommendations once the investigation is complete.
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Associated Press writers Farnoush Amiri, Darlene Superville and White House correspondent Zeke Miller contributed to this report.
