Republicans Plow Ahead with Biden Impeachment Inquiry Hearing as Dems Rage; House Republicans Outline Scope of Biden Impeachment Inquiry with 4 Key Questions

Republicans plow ahead with Biden impeachment inquiry hearing as Dems rage:

House Republicans accused President Biden and his son Hunter of corruption in a manner “as old as time” while swatting aside Democratic attempts to derail the first impeachment inquiry hearing, even as witnesses told the GOP they don’t have the goods to bring a case against the chief executive — yet.

Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) in his opening remarks told panel members that their inquiry into the president was premised on a “mountain of evidence” Republicans had obtained about the Biden family’s “culture of corruption.”

That evidence has been obtained through subpoenas for bank records, witness testimony and portions of records from a five-year criminal probe into Hunter Biden’s finances released by IRS whistleblowers.

The House panel uncovered more than $24 million taken in by Biden family members through more than 20 shell companies, much of it coming from foreign nationals and foreign entities in Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Romania and China.

“What were the Bidens selling to make all this money? Joe Biden himself,” Comer said, arguing that the then-vice president “spoke, dined and developed relationships” with associates of Hunter and James Biden.

Biden, 80, had since made false statements about his involvement with his family member’s business “at least 10 times,” according to Comer.

House Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.) highlighted how his committee worked with two IRS tax investigators, Gary Shapley and Jason Ziegler, to release hundreds of documents detailing a sprawling investigation into the first son’s alleged financial crimes, including potential money laundering and illegal foreign lobbying.

“In a newly released message to a Chinese business executive, Hunter Biden mentioned preserving the ‘keys to my family’s only asset’ — that asset: Joe Biden,” Smith said.

Smith went on to share that Ways and Means had obtained emails, text messages and worksheets produced by Shapley and Ziegler as part of an investigation into the first son that they said was derailed earlier this year. —>READ MORE HERE

House Republicans outline scope of Biden impeachment inquiry with 4 key questions:

The impeachment inquiry into President Biden will focus on answering four key questions related to the commander in chief’s alleged involvement in his family’s extensive foreign business dealings, a memo released by the Republican leaders of the three House committees tasked with leading the probe revealed Wednesday.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.), Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.) explained the purpose of the inquiry, summarized the evidence justifying it and outlined the scope of their investigation in the detailed, 20-page missive to members of their respective panels.

The inquiry into the 80-year-old president will seek to determine the following:

• “First, did Joe Biden, as Vice President and/or President, take any official action or effect any change in government policy because of money or other things of value provided to his family or him from foreign interests?” 

• “Second, did Joe Biden, as Vice President and/or President, abuse his office of public trust by providing foreign interests with access to him and his office in exchange for payments to his family or him?” 

• “Third, did Joe Biden, as Vice President and/or President, abuse his office of public trust by knowingly participating in a scheme to enrich himself or his family by giving foreign interests the impression that they would receive access to him and his office in exchange for payments to his family or him?” 

• “Fourth, did Joe Biden abuse his power as President to impede, obstruct, or otherwise hinder investigations (including Congressional investigations) or the prosecution of Hunter Biden?”

The congressional leaders caution that the probe “will go where that evidence leads” and that over the course of the investigation it may go in a direction that the committees “do not currently foresee.”

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy directed the House committees to open a formal impeachment inquiry into Biden on Sept. 12, citing “serious and credible allegations” of corruption found during congressional investigations into the president’s involvement in his family’s apparent overseas influence peddling operation. —>READ MORE HERE

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