House GOP unveils Biden impeachment report

[Chris 59,292]

WASHINGTON – House Republicans released an impeachment report Monday filled with accusations of influence peddling and obstruction against President Joe Biden, who has denied the charges as "lies" during the nearly two-year investigation.

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The 291-page report from three committees – Judiciary, Oversight and Accountability, and Ways and Means – accuses Biden of participating in a conspiracy to help his relatives receive millions of dollars from foreign interests by attending dinners and speaking with them on the phone.

“The totality of the corrupt conduct uncovered by the Committees is egregious,” the report said. “President Joe Biden conspired to commit influence peddling and grift. In doing so, he abused his office and, by repeatedly lying about his abuse of office, has defrauded the United States to enrich his family.”

The release of the report came the same day Biden, who decided last month to drop out of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, is scheduled to speak at the Democratic National Convention. The report said the committees sought to update lawmakers about the evidence gathered so far while continuing to investigate. But Biden’s allies have said Republicans aimed to prop up GOP nominee Donald Trump’s polling numbers against Biden through the investigation and help the former president win in November.

Biden has called the accusations of corruption “lies.” His brother James Biden and son Hunter Biden have denied he was involved in their business dealings. After a hearing in March, when even some House Republicans questioned the evidence against Biden, White House counsel Edward Siskel declared the impeachment inquiry over − prematurely.

“Instead, the investigation has continually turned up evidence that, in fact, the President did nothing wrong,” Siskel wrote in March to House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.

The report is cast as an update on the multiple investigations Republicans have pursued since regaining control of the House in 2023 rather than necessarily setting up a vote on impeachment and a Senate trial. The impeachment inquiry is likely to become the first against a president that didn't result in a House vote or resignation.

GOP lawmakers said after Biden dropped out of the race that they would begin investigating Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee to face Trump, and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Oversight committee, released a rival report he said debunked and refuted “the same old lies and propaganda.” Raskin argued “every lie, distortion and dirty trick” from Republicans “sharply boomeranged and imploded.”

“What do you call a hellbent 20-month impeachment drive whose managers finally just dissolve into compulsive repetition of thoroughly discredited and meaningless accusations?” Raskin asked. “I would call it a complete exoneration of the target of their pathetic attacks – President Joe Biden.”

The description of Biden's offenses repeatedly cites passages from the 2019 Democratic impeachment of Trump over his dealings with Ukraine to justify and explain the charges.

“Despite the cheapening of the impeachment power by Democrats in recent years, the House’s decision to pursue articles of impeachment must not be made lightly,” the report said.

The report comes a week after Justice Department special counsel David Weiss filed arguments in the looming trial against Hunter Biden on charges of unpaid taxes. Prosecutors wrote that rather than introduce evidence Biden was compensated “for actions taken by his father that impacted national or international politics,” the president's son “performed almost no work” in exchange for millions he received from foreign companies

Republicans had warned that the two impeachments of Trump, who was acquitted both times in the Senate, would lead to retaliatory political accusations whenever Congress and the White House were controlled by different parties. The House has already impeached Alejandro Mayorkas, secretary of Homeland Security, but the charges focused on border security were dismissed in the Democratic-led Senate without a trial.

Here is what we know about the report against Biden:

The report provides a laundry list of Republican accusations against Biden ranging from his relatives’ business deals to the federal prosecution of his son and to the investigation of classified documents found at Biden’s home and offices.

Findings in the report include:

• Biden’s relatives received $27 million from foreign entities since 2014, a period that spans his vice presidency and a four-year hiatus from public office. But the Bidens dispute the president benefited from the deals; James Biden says the hundreds of thousands of dollars he gave his brother was to repay a personal loan.
• Hunter Biden would routinely put his father on speakerphone while meeting with foreign business associates during his dealings with Russian, Romanian, Chinese, Kazakhstani and Ukrainian figures. But some witnesses have testified the conversations were inconsequential, such as about the weather.
• The Justice Department allegedly gave Hunter Biden special treatment during the investigation that led to charges for gun possession and unpaid taxes. After a federal judge refused to accept a plea deal that could have resulted in no jail time for the president’s son, he was convicted in June of gun charges and faces trial in September on tax charges.
• The White House is accused of obstructing the impeachment inquiry by withholding key documents and witnesses. For example, Biden invoked executive privilege in refusing to release the recording of his interview with special counsel Robert Hur about classified documents. The Justice Department provided a transcript but said the recording could discourage witnesses from participating in future investigations.

In December 2019, the Democratic-led House voted to impeach Trump on accusations of abusing the power of the presidency and obstructing Congress after asking Ukrainian officials to announce an investigation of Biden, his political rival. Trump argued that his call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was “perfect” and within his power to conduct foreign policy.

House Republicans said the Trump impeachment was “highly relevant” because it asserted “high crimes and misdemeanors” required for impeachment were defined by “abuse of power,” “betrayal of the national interest through foreign entanglements” and “corruption of office and elections.”

The report argued that Biden’s participation in the alleged conspiracy to enrich his family abused the public trust by placing his family ahead of the welfare of the United States.

“Indeed, precedent set by House Democrats in 2019 in their impeachment of President Donald J. Trump establishes that ‘abuse of office,’ defined as the exercise of ‘official power to obtain an improper personal benefit, while ignoring or injuring the national interest,’ is an impeachable offense,” the report said.

The report also said the Trump precedent meant that Biden’s awareness of his son’s defiance of subpoenas for testimony could be used to infer evidence would be unfavorable.

“As a matter of constitutional law, the House may properly conclude that a President's obstruction of Congress is relevant to assessing the evidentiary record in an impeachment inquiry,” the Democratic report for Trump’s impeachment said. “For centuries, courts have recognized that ‘when a party has relevant evidence within his control which he fails to produce, that failure gives rise to an inference that the evidence is unfavorable to him.’”

Republicans said the precedent meant the House was free to conclude witnesses and information withheld from the committees was “adverse to the President.”

Biden, his son and brother, and administration officials have rebutted the accusations throughout the inquiry.

"Instead of doing anything to help make Americans’ lives better, they are focused on attacking me with lies," Biden said in a statement in December after the House voted to authorize the impeachment inquiry.

Siskel, the White House counsel, said Republicans collected more than 100,000 pages of records and interviewed dozens of witnesses without demonstrating Biden did anything wrong.

Hunter and James Biden each testified that the president was never involved in their business deals. Eric Schwerin, who helped the president with personal finances, said he wasn’t aware of any compensation Biden received as vice president related to his relatives’ business.

“The mountain of testimony has only laid bare that the President did nothing wrong,” Siskel told Johnson.

A former FBI informant, Alexander Smirnov, claimed Joe and Hunter Biden took $5 million bribes from the Ukrainian energy company Burisma, where Biden's son worked. House Republicans temporarily deemed it a key piece of evidence against Biden. But Smirnov was indicted by a federal grand jury in February on charges of lying to the FBI about the allegations just weeks before the 2020 presidential election.

Biden’s allies cited former Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., a former prosecutor who retired in March, for saying fellow Republicans were making impeachment “a social media issue as opposed to a constitutional concept.” A group of legal experts called the inquiry “a misuse of power” and “manifestly unjustified.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: As Democrats kick off convention, House GOP unveils Biden impeachment report

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2024/08/19/house-gop-biden-impeachment-report/74840382007/

 

As Democrats kick off convention, House GOP unveils Biden impeachment report (msn.com)