House votes to formalize Republican impeachment inquiry into Biden

Republicans voted to formalize their ongoing impeachment inquiry into whether President Joe Biden had ties to or benefited from his son Hunter's shady business deals.

The party-line vote of 221 to 212 opens the door for the Republican Party to get more evidence about schemes that gave the Biden family millions from countries like China, Ukraine and Romania.

And the Bidens will now be subpoenaed more of their banking records, mortgage records, emails, text messages and cellphones, along with anything else Congress wants to see.

Since early 2023, Republicans have been investigating Joe Biden for his alleged connections to his son Hunter's extremely lucrative, tens of millions of dollars in influence peddling scheme.

With a formal vote on an impeachment inquiry, Republicans say the White House can no longer hold them back from obtaining requested documents and statements. But top Republican Party leaders have argued that was unnecessary.

“You don't need a full vote of the House to initiate an impeachment inquiry to do the investigation that we are constitutionally obligated to do,” GOP Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., told DailyMail ahead of the vote. com.

“But they are preventing witnesses from testifying, the National Archives is withholding thousands of documents,” he claimed.

And the White House “will not recognize or acknowledge these subpoenas without a vote,” Emmer continued.

He said that when confronted with that fact, new Chairman Mike Johnson said, “If we're going to have to go to court to enforce this, you might as well dismiss every objection they have,” Emmer continued .

Speaker Johnson and his leadership team applauded the House for taking a “critical step in our investigation” by approving the impeachment inquiry.

“While President Biden is blocking lawful subpoenas from Congress, today's vote in the full House of Representatives approving the investigation puts us in the strongest position to enforce these subpoenas in court,” said Johnson, Emmer, Majority Leader Steve Scalise and GOP Chairwoman Elise Stefanik. in a joint statement.

As a result of the full clearance, Republicans plan to bring in Hunter associates Rob Walker, Eric Schwerin, Tony Bobulinski and Kevin Morris. They also hope to receive the rest of the Biden pseudonym emails that the National Archives says the Republican Party cannot provide.

President Biden denounced the “baseless” Republican impeachment stunt in the House of Representatives in a statement after the vote.

He said Congress still has much work to do, including authorizing additional funding for Ukraine, Israel and the southern border.

'There is a lot of work to be done. But after wasting weeks finding a new Speaker of the House of Representatives and having to expel their own members, Republicans in Congress are leaving Congress for a month without doing anything to address these pressing issues,” he said. the president.

“Instead of doing anything to improve the lives of Americans, they are focused on attacking me with lies,” Biden continued.

The vote came just hours after Republicans moved to initiate proceedings to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress when he defied their subpoena.

Republicans subpoenaed Hunter last month along with James Biden, Joe's brother, for testimony. And Hunter was scheduled to appear at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday for his scheduled closed-door deposition.

But the president's son gave a dramatic five-minute speech on Capitol Hill, defending his father and explaining the struggles he had with his crack cocaine addiction, while criticizing Republicans for taking advantage of his situation.

Hunter then sped away in an Escalade, away from the room where he was supposed to make a closed-door deposition, violating the terms of the subpoena.

The National Archives has turned over tens of thousands of documents to Republicans in the House of Representatives.

The DOJ, FBI, IRS and National Archives have made nine witnesses available to discuss ongoing investigations, and the Treasury Department has made available 2,000 pages of suspicious activity reports.

The Oversight Committee also collected and reviewed more than 37,000 pages of bank records and hours of whistleblower testimony.

But Republicans insist there is more to see.

For example, they demand more information about the 82,000 emails sent by Joe Biden under a pseudonym, which concern both official and family businesses.

They are also seeking more information about Hunter's 2014 and 2015 taxes — which special counsel David Weiss admitted had expired because Hunter failed to pay taxes on $1 million in Burisma income.

“So now you have the indictments for nine charges from last week, none from 2014, 15 and that's a very important year for the vice presidency.”

Republicans are investigating the extent to which Joe Biden was involved in his son's foreign business dealings. They point out that Biden has pressured Ukraine to fire prosecutor Viktor Shokin – who investigated Burisma and whom he accused of corruption.

They also point to testimony from Hunter associate Devon Archer, who said Joe Biden had contact with Hunter's business associates about 20 times over the past decade — on the phone or at dinners.

Hunter Biden gave an emotional five-minute speech to the press in which he admitted, “At the depths of my addiction, I was extremely irresponsible with my finances.”

But, he said, “(Republicans) have taken the light of my father's love for me and presented it as darkness.” Hunter said his father had never been involved in his business ventures.

'My father was not financially involved in my business, not as a practicing lawyer, not as a board member of Burisma, not in my partnership with the Chinese private businessman, not in my investments at home and abroad and certainly not as an artist. '