By After months of talk, Republicans in the House will finally take action. Speaker Mike Johnson announced that the House of Representatives will soon vote to authorize a formal impeachment inquiry against President Biden. The move aims to provide House investigators more authority to obtain evidence showing that Joe Biden and his family have been peddling influence with foreign agents for years.
The Speaker said that despite not everyone in the GOP caucus supporting impeachment, he expects near unanimity to allow the House of Representatives to continue to gather proof about the alleged Biden scheme.
Mr. Johnson said on Tuesday that all Republicans could now feel comfortable voting to formalize the ongoing inquiry because doing so merely continues an investigation and does not assert any wrongdoing by the president worthy of impeachment, writes The New York Times.
“This vote is not a vote to impeach President Biden,” Mr. Johnson said at a news conference. “This is a vote to continue the inquiry of impeachment, and that’s a necessary constitutional step. I believe we’ll get every vote that we have.”
An aide to Mr. Johnson said he planned to call the vote next week, but he cautioned that the schedule remained fluid.
Mr. Johnson suggested the vote was necessary for the investigation to be considered legitimate, citing a Nov. 17 letter from Richard Sauber, a special counsel to President Biden. Mr. Sauber condemned the inquiry and said that recent subpoenas and demands for congressional testimony from the former White House counsel, White House aides and Biden family members were “irresponsible.”
“You also claim the mantle of an ‘impeachment inquiry’ knowing full well that the Constitution requires that the full House authorize an impeachment inquiry before a committee may utilize compulsory process pursuant to the impeachment power — a step the Republican House majority has so far refused to take,” Mr. Sauber wrote.
For months, the White House has been “stonewalling” inquiries, particularly those related to The National Archives, Speaker Johnson said, referring to thousands of emails held by the archives written under a fake name used by Joe Biden during his time as vice president.
“They’re refusing to turn over key witnesses to allow them to testify as they’ve been subpoenaed. They’re refusing to turn over thousands of documents for the National Archives. The House has no choice, if it’s going to follow its constitutional responsibility, to formally adopt an impeachment inquiry on the floor so that when the subpoenas are challenged in court we’ll be at the apex of our constitutional authority.”
White House spokesperson Ian Sams, sent a memo last week, rebutting claims that the White House has been obstructing the inquiry, wrote ABC News. “Sams said House Republicans have had access to 35,000 pages of financial records, 36 hours of witness interviews and more.”
Despite several pieces of evidence that he interacted with Hunter Biden’s businesses on numerous occasions, including receiving payment from one of the entities, Joe Biden has called any connection to his son’s shady business deals “lies.”
BREAKING: Biden says "it's a bunch of lies" that he interacted with his son Hunter's foreign business associates pic.twitter.com/RzoTSvn3lJ
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) December 6, 2023
House Oversight Chairman recently revealed that Biden exchanged hundreds of emails under a fake name to the managing director of one of Hunter’s companies.
The vote on the impeachment inquiry comes as two Republican committee chairmen have threatened the president’s son and brother with contempt of Congress charges for refusing to appear for a close-door deposition.
The Daily Caller reported that James Comer and Jim Jordan “wrote a letter Wednesday to Abbe D. Lowell, Hunter Biden’s defense attorney, informing Lowell the committees will initiate proceedings to hold Hunter Biden in contempt if he does not abide by a subpoena and appear for a deposition on Dec. 13.
“Contrary to the assertions in your letter, there is no ‘choice’ for Mr. Biden to make; the subpoenas compel him to appear for a deposition on December 13. If Mr. Biden does not appear for his deposition on December 13, 2023, the Committees will initiate contempt of Congress proceedings,” the letter reads.
The House Oversight Committee subpoenaed Hunter Biden in November to appear for a deposition before the committee. Lowell countered with an offer for Hunter Biden to testify publicly and skip the deposition.”
The crown prince of the Biden family recently said he was willing to testify, but has demanded that he be allowed to do so in public, allowing him to make a spectacle and while preventing certain lines of questioning related to national security instead of doing a deposition.
Comer and Jordan, along with Jason Smith, the chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, rejected Hunter’s demand.
[Read More: Biden Could Only Hide So Long]
