Rep. James Comer, who has spearheaded Biden’s impeachment inquiry, hinted he will focus on “criminal references” rather than impeaching the president.
“I want accountability,” the Kentucky Republican said on NewsMax. ‘What does real responsibility look like? Does it look like Joe Biden will be impeached in the House of Representatives and then the Senate will table it?”
‘Or does this mean that there should be real criminal referrals to the Ministry of Justice? I think it’s the ladder,” added Comer, chairman of the oversight committee.
But Republicans largely admit that even in the House of Representatives, they don’t yet have the votes to impeach Biden.
Rep. James Comer, who has spearheaded Biden’s impeachment inquiry, hinted he will focus on “criminal references” rather than impeaching the president
“We want accountability and I believe the best path to accountability is to refer criminals.”
A criminal referral would largely amount to a symbolic letter suggesting to the Justice Department that prosecutors investigate specific crimes they believe have been committed.
The path forward for the impeachment inquiry is unclear after Republicans in the House of Representatives brought in President Biden’s brother James and son Hunter, along with Hunter’s former associates and thousands of pages of records and documents.
Comer has invited Joe Biden to testify before the committee, an invitation that will almost certainly be rejected.
“No one on the Democratic side of the aisle, no one in the mainstream media denies the fact that we have proven that the Bidens exerted influence,” Comer said. “There is some disagreement about whether or not Joe Biden knew what was going on. The only way to find out is to ask him to come before the hearing.”
All the way back in July, Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan said Biden’s impeachment inquiry was reaching an “important final stage.” In November, he predicted that interviews with the Biden family would be completed before the end of the year.
On Wednesday, Republicans brought in former Hunter aides Tony Bobulinski and Jason Galanis — who testified about how they had tried to take advantage of Biden’s “lift.”
The impeachment inquiry’s path forward is murky after House Republicans brought in President Biden’s brother James and son Hunter, along with Hunter’s former associates and thousands of pages of records and documents
Comer then said he would focus on the tens of thousands of emails that Joe Biden sent under a pseudonym when he was vice president — and on Hunter’s credit card information.
Last month, Comer subpoenaed credit card companies to obtain financial records of Hunter Biden, James Biden, Sara Biden and their ex-business partners Eric Schwerin, Gongwen Dong and Mervyn Yan.
He also subpoenaed 13 years of Hunter’s phone records from AT&T.
“If we get the rest of the information, the credit card information that we subpoenaed, if we get the rest of the emails, the pseudonymous emails, then I think we can take steps to file a report bring,” Comer told reporters Wednesday.
And last week — six months into the impeachment inquiry — Speaker Mike Johnson admitted he hasn’t had time to “dive deeply into the evidence” to determine whether Republicans should vote to impeach the president, a suggestion that this prospect is not a top priority. .
“To be very honest with you, very honest and transparent, because I’ve been so busy with all my other responsibilities, I haven’t been able to take the time to delve deeply into the evidence,” he revealed.
“Yet what has been discovered is alarming,” the speaker added.